India, May 11 -- By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Last week I wrote about how thoughtlessly our civic authorities have behaved in chopping down forty beautiful Yellow Shower trees on the Hyder Ali Road, under the lame pretext of a need to widen it. These are the same authorities vested with the almost sacred responsibility of safeguarding our public places and public assets, in whatever form they are.

Our trees, humble as they may be, and wherever they may be, are among our most precious assets, deserving protection from all dangers, natural or man-made. And, yet, we saw a full forty of them, all in the prime of their youth, helplessly felled by man's unkind hands, while they had braved the harsh elements and stood their ground, for nearly a...