India, May 18 -- By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

The trees in and around our city have been in the news, sadly for some very wrong and unhappy reasons, over the past one month. The tragic and very avoidable loss of some of them, has thankfully galvanised a few concerned Mysureans into thinking of not only just protecting the existing ones but also of planting new ones to augment our green heritage, which is the best thing that we can do to ourselves and our posterity too.

Very recently, some residents of the city even had a meeting and a discussion that included an interaction with a knowledgeable tree expert, S. Natesh to prepare a checklist of the trees in our city and chalk out a strategy to protect and propagate them.

This I feel was a...