In 2019, the viral #50trees on Twitter (now X) got people across India to begin documenting trees in their cities. Among them was a Delhi-based law officer, Chandan Tiwary, who until then had been “tree-blind.” The then 40-year-old quickly realised there was a lack of information on trees in Delhi. “Trees can teach so much about a city’s cultural history. I felt this gap had to be addressed,” he says. And so, Tiwary started an Instagram page, @delhitrees, to build bridges between people and trees. Today it has become a community of almost 5,000 people.
Chandan Tiwary, next to an almond tree in Delhi’s Connaught Place.
| Photo Credit:
Chandan Tiwary
Down south, digital marketing consultant Ashwathi Jerome, who was back in her hometown, Kochi, in 2020, was always interested in studying the intersections between cultural history and ecology, and using trees to learn about the city’s history. She noticed a similar gap as Tiwary. “It was surprising to know that there are no comprehensive books covering the nature of Kochi as a whole,” she says. During the lockdown, she started the Instagram page @treesofcochin to build a knowledge base for interested people.
For more than a decade, social media has been used to raise voices against legal and illegal construction projects that harm urban biodiversity. Now, there is an interesting shift, with people turning to social media to talk about the flora and fauna around them. “I have noticed that since COVID-19, more people have been using social media to mobilise citizen awareness about urban biodiversity. During the lockdown, learning about nature provided mental relief and that trend seems to have continued,” says researcher and author Harini Nagendra, who leads Azim Premji University’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability.
A peepal tree in Kochi
She feels that when people engage with public parks and biodiversity, either through book clubs, nature walks or social media, it becomes difficult to use the space for infrastructure projects or land capture. “Policymakers also appreciate the importance of green spaces. Social media has a very positive amplifying effect, which can be useful,” Nagendra adds.
For people such as Tiwary and Jerome, it’s not just about sharing a picture or two online but about equipping people with a “tree lens”. People pass by trees every day without a second glance. By sharing information, these creators hope to build familiarity through awareness.
The documenters
The lack of familiarity is also what drove author and filmmaker Pradip Krishen to dive deep into trees and related ecology. A few years ago, he realised he had no idea about the tree standing by the gate of his house in Delhi. It had been there for about 30 years. “This sudden realisation sparked a curiosity to learn not just about that particular tree but the trees all over Delhi,” Krishen says. This led to him publishing his book, Trees of Delhi: A Field Guide, in 2006.
Kulu aka ghost tree in Delhi.
| Photo Credit:
Chandan Tiwary
“Learning about trees is like doing giant jigsaw puzzles, you never know what surprising information you might come across. I saw a tree in Delhi’s Sunder Nursery that no one around me could identify and I finally found it in Sydney, Australia. It turned out to be a carrotwood (Cupaniopsis anacardioides), endemic to New South Wales,” Krishen recalls.
Hingot flowers
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Akshay Onkar
For 29-year-old Akshay Onkar, who holds a master’s in environmental science, starting the Instagram page @trees_ofIndia in August 2023 was a way of putting out the right information about trees. “I have seen how misinformation about trees and their cultivation has made its way to social media. I wanted to use my knowledge in the field to talk about the scientific importance of trees, where they should be planted, and can be preserved,” says Onkar, who lives in Amravati, Maharashtra.
Akshay Onkar next to a chironji tree.
| Photo Credit:
Akshay Onkar
Onkar decided to use his teaching and travel experience to talk about trees found across India. Whenever he travels, he documents the trees he comes across. From finding a khejri (Prosopis cineraria) native to Rajasthan in Delhi’s Sunder Nursery to stumbling upon a red sandalwood, which is endemic to the Eastern Ghats, in Lodhi Gardens, he uses his Instagram page to share these discoveries. “I try to make people understand why they are native to certain cities. For instance, the khejri tree helps in soil conservation in semi-arid and arid areas such as Rajasthan,” he says.
Climate change indicators
Jerome and Tiwary, who are not trained in ecology, put in extensive hours to learn about trees. “When you observe trees closely, you recognise the changes they are undergoing because of the rising effects of climate change,” says Jerome. She mentions the konna tree (Cassia fistula) that usually blooms during the festival of Vishu, around April. However, in the last two or three years, Jerome has noticed it flowering in November and December. “Kochi has become hotter now, and that’s probably why we see the konna blooming in the colder months,” she says.
Mahua tree
| Photo Credit:
Akshay Onkar
In the process of promoting trees, these content creators have also noticed a lack of flora diversity in our cities. “We have neglected native trees and I wanted to bring focus to it through the page,” says Onkar. Nagendra has mixed feelings about this. For instance, she points out that many of the exotic species in Bengaluru have been around for more than 150 or 200 years, so the fauna and the ecosystem have adapted to them. “If we go back to completely native trees in this city, which is a semi-arid area, there would be dry, barren areas with very few trees, and they will be deciduous, thorny ones with very low canopy,” she says.
Krishen also says that while it is good to see social media being used to promote awareness about trees, he worries about misinformation. “Planting trees has also become a fad in some ways. The harm is that when you try to replace open natural ecosystems [ONEs] with woodlands, you can harm the ecosystem, so such issues must also be talked about.”
Salvodora flowers
| Photo Credit:
Akshay Onkar
An important way of harnessing social media in conservation efforts is in the education space, Nagendra emphasises. “It helps in increasing the number of people observing and reading about trees, which is important now more than ever,” she says. The content creators seem to agree. “When you learn about trees, you get protective of them. Sustained interest in trees can bring about awareness about climate change and preservation,” concludes Jerome.
The independent journalist specialises in gender, culture, and social justice.
Published – December 06, 2024 12:47 pm IST