A tree planted today may live for decades. Where it is planted, which species is chosen, how it is cared for - all of this shapes a landscape long after the people who planted it are gone. This is worth remembering as India urbanises. Rising temperatures, air pollution, water stress and biodiversity loss make the case for greener landscapes urgent. Trees give shade, cool the air, support biodiversity, protect soil and improve our well-being.

So what do we actually mean by afforestation? Is it just putting saplings in the ground? Or is it about building living landscapes, where the right trees grow in the right places and become part of a working ecosystem?

Indian tradition has an answer, of sorts. Trees have never been merely trees in our imagination. They are witnesses to stories, shelter for travellers, sources of food and medicine, symbols of life itself. The forests of the Ramayana, especially Panchavati, are not empty........

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