THERE is a Victorian plane tree in the centre of London, in the space once made famous by a song that regaled a nightingale singing in the square, that is worth a whopping £750,000, as high as many apartments in the area. This value is based on size, age, health, location, and the number of people who are enjoying the tree under a system called Cavat (capital asset value for amenity trees) to stop these green assets from being cut down with impunity.
This is a truly enlightened act of urban audit because it recognises the fact that trees are not only ornamental but they give many other benefits as well. Trees are valuable in folk medicine, in shamanistic practice and now, in complementary therapy. Many of our modern drugs are derived from the largesse of trees, many societies depend entirely on them, take for instance the role of the moringa (the drumstick) tree in India and Africa, or the coconut tree in Southeast Asia, or the neem and the tulsi (holy basil) in many Asian societies.
But you do not have to eat a tree to benefit from it. Just being near one is enough to soothe the temper, being surrounded by greenery benefits the body and soul and the older the tree, apparently, the better it benefits to the community. An ancient tree is a marker, a part of history, a shade provider and witness to the travails and the changes in human history, to say nothing of its role as a record of changes in the weather.
Yet, everywhere we go we see trees being felled and slashed and burnt. Big trees fall to make way for big houses, comprehensive development calls for the flattening of everything in the way so that things can be planned anew, including trees. A saner planning policy would have begun in the opposite direction, because trees embrace us and we should — all of us — embrace trees.
Now there is mounting evidence that we need trees to keep not only our physical but also our mental health. The role of trees in our physical healing has been well documented, right from the dawn of history, both in folklore and in medical literature. Now doctors and psychologists are beginning to realise that being close to nature is not just a poet’s fancy. Scientific evidence is mounting to show that the benefits are real.
The Mount Sinai hospital in New York has realigned its wards so that patients will have a view of Central Park. Why? Because there is evidence that not only is a view of trees calming to the mind but it also helps the healing process. At the A&M university in Texas researchers have found that being among trees reduces stress and lowers blood pressure within minutes and at Illinois University they have found that trees benefit people living in tower blocks not only by calming them down but also in making them more sociable. It also halved incidents of crime. All these studies were reported in the UK based magazine Psychologies of July 2010.
Knowledge that nature benefits us is in our instincts and in ourselves yet it is one that we have chosen to ignore. It was the practice even in the sticks of Kuala Terengganu where I was born to take patients out of hospital wards into the warm and calming morning light, something we could see as the general hospital was close to our school. When our family moved to Kuantan I remember we had to do a spot of gardening before classes started for the day. These are practices that we have abandoned today for the slick and the glitz of modern ‘realities’.
Perhaps we should teach our children to love trees by introducing such hands on periods where they plant seeds, water the garden and watch the trees grow. Perhaps by that we will raise a new breed that will not view forests and trees as obstructions to our progress but as companions and promoters of our well being as they should be. Just look at our urban landscape and the sprawling housing estates that we are building around us and we can see how we have become such restless souls.
In Islam, planting a tree is an act of piety, and I am sure it is the view in other religions too. So let us make our planners plan better in this year, let us make them plan and plant more trees.
The writer is an NST columnist