The Aravalli is old. Older than the Himalaya, older than our arguments, older than our institutions and those who run them. It has survived glaciations, tectonic upheavals, and centuries of illegal mining. It did not, however, anticipate being improved.

Earlier this month, a leading Rajasthan newspaper ran a Sunday “positive” story about a plan by the forest department to plant saplings on rocky forest land through a technique called “double blasting”. The hard, stony ground of the Aravallis — ground that has been hard and stony for approximately 1.5 billion years and is rather settled in its ways — will be blasted — twice — so that the earth becomes crumbly. And then a plant will be put in the resulting crater. The plant, presumably, will grow. Greenery will ensue. Rajasthan’s 5,476 sq km of rocky forest will be transformed. The numbers will be issued. The paperwork will be filed with satisfaction.

My father, naturalist Raza H Tehsin, who spent a lifetime in these landscapes, finds this plan remarkable. Not because it is bad science (that it is) but because it so........

© Indian Express