NGO launches book on trees of Mumbai

It has information on 318 different species, about their flowering time,
history, mythology
ANUMEHA YADAV

A WALK under the trees-an increasingly enticing prospect as the mercury
rises-could now also become your chance to discover a lot more.
'The Trees of Mumbai', a book published by the country's largest
conservationist non-governmental organisation, Bombay Natural History
Society (BNHS), details over a hundred trees that line the city's sidewalks
and dot green patches like the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and IIT Powai
campus, among others.

In 250 pages, authors Marselin Almeida and Naresh Chaturvedi list physical
characteristics, information about time of flowering of over a hundred trees
divided as cassia, ficus, and palms and even slices of history and
mythology.

Like how of the 318 species of trees found in Mumbai, almost half have been
brought from other countries: the baobab, a tree with a massive girth of
upto 27 meters and flowers as big as one's palm from Africa by Abyssinian
and Por For details contact: BNHS 22821811 tuguese traders, and the
resplendent Gulmohar, from Madagascar, The book tells you where in the city
you can spot these gentle giants, their medicinal properties and even myths
and mythologies regarding some of the trees. Like ashoka, which was supposed
to be one of the five arrows thrown by Kama to disturb the meditating Shiva,
or the bael tree with its luscious fruit, was supposed to have been given as
a wedding gift to Hera, the Greek goddess, when she married Zeus.

The book sponsored by MMREnvironment Improvement Society gives information
on how to plant trees suited to different areas, for instance, to plant
mango trees in earth that has predominantly red soil. It also tells you how
to ensure that the trees are protected. It explains how to approach the
police or the Tree Authority, a civic body, in case of illegal felling;
crucial for a city that has lost over 11,000 trees in the last two years to
road widening projects and slapdash construction

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