India, Feb. 23 -- What does it take to grow a forest? You could start with a book.
Trees of South India: Native Trees and Shrubs of the South Indian Plains and Hillocks (2024; HarperCollins) traces a 50-year effort to restore and research a rare forest ecosystem along the Coromandel Coast. It is co-authored by British-born forester Paul Blanchflower (below, left), 58, and French landscape architect Marie Demont (below, right), 47.
The book lists the trees and shrubs native to India's only tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF; a forest ecosystem that remains lush all year, despite scanty rain), as well as species that grow in the dry deciduous forests found in the South Indian plains.
Geographically, the range spreads across coastal parts ...