India, May 6 -- In Chhattarpur, along the controversial 2.3-kilometre stretch of the Satbari-Gaushala road, felled stumps and sawed-off branches lie like battlefield casualties. This road-widening project, tied to the AIIMS-CAPF campus at Maidan Garhi, led to the alleged illegal cutting of over 1,100 trees in the eco-sensitive Asola Bhatti zone. What remains now is a six-lane expanse - and a mystery. Right in the middle of this urban carnage stand two towering cactus trees, untouched, as though the chainsaws had simply glanced off them. Thick, wooden trunks support masses of fleshy branches that twist and reach like the limbs of a hydra. These aren't the potted cactus plants you see on balconies. These are behemoths, taller than traffic lig...