Sorry, my dear trees!

KC PRADHAN
The beeline of hundreds of cars denied me the chance to reach a meeting in time recently, even though I had kept a good 45 minutes, unlike just 25 minutes required till a few years back, to commute to the place and took the Namnang Road. On the drive, to my horror, I found all cypress trees (Cupressus torulosa.) planted in 1976, on near mission mode- gone. Later, I was told they are making space for a walkway. A walkway is fine, with nice scenery both down to the Roro Chu and beyond to the verdant forests of Bhusuk, but why did these poor trees have to become victims? Removing a few is understandable, but rendering the entire place almost barren is absolutely unacceptable. You can make sky scrapers, but trees so well established for the last 35 to 40 years cannot be bought as it amounts to buying time. Cypress is a well-rooted tree species. A good example of this is the Cupressus funebris at Yuksam – now almost 370 years old and still standing like a sentinel even though its top-half is blown away. At best, they could be top headed. Better planning could have been done to make the walkway or whatever is in the planning process to make trees the focal points and blend it with architectural planning. Why the Forest Department succumbed to such blatant destruction, I cannot fathom. The plantation was established the hard way.
I have seen many houses in Kerala designed by Laurie Baker with coconut trees jutting out right from inside the house - like the one of our former Development Commissioner RN Narayanan in Trivandrum. I thought to myself as I drove along they could be well blended in the scheme of things.
My senior, MM Rasaily, a very strict and disciplined forest officer, used to reject such requests outright with remarks “whether his house came first or the tree. Knowing very well the tree is there what made him to build the house”. That was the respect the trees had in the State at one time.
Then again, on the plea of earthquake damaging houses, hundreds of trees were put to the axe - the one Panisaj of a 100+ years near my house which was almost a landmark, is now gone. Sikkim’s beauty is in its nature, the trees and forests and to relegate them for the shake of making grandiose structures for tourist attractions at the cost of some of the grand trees, is, in my opinion, at conflict with the ethos and appeal of the place. It is time to give a deep thought and the Forest Department should play very pro-active role in this.
The number of trees being felled for the national highway double-laning is heart-breaking. The precious avenue plantations of silver oak at Bageykhola are all gone. But highway widening is a necessity and some sacrifice cannot be helped. Hope these 40 year old trees with sizeable boles could be put to good use - preferably by the Directorate of Handloom and Cottage Industries- as it makes very good furniture timber. Again, further down Bageykhola, near the Hume Pipe factory, three mandaney trees loaded with orchid (Cymbidium aloifolium) - the largest clumps with numerous brownish pendant flowers floating in the air in April - are all gone. What has become of my prized orchids, of whom I have numerous photographs, are best not recollected for the pain such nostalgia will bring.
I wish I had not gone or traveled to see and get myself so disillusioned. Good bye my trees. Do please forgive us!
[The writer is a former Chief Secretary to the Govt of Sikkim and prefers to introduce himself as “A Forester cum Plantsman”]