The entrance to the Lane of B84 has two Bougainvillaea shrubs as Guards on duty. They were about ten inches tall when they were planted about three years ago. Of the ten saplings, only seven survived, having drawn from the sun, water, soil and the loving words and glances of some of us.
Five of these Bougainvillaea shrubs, about five feet in height, were mercilessly hacked when in full bloom, on account of a flimsy fencing being put up. The irony is that the fencing has several gaps and is leaning towards the road whereas the seven Bougainvilleas would have afforded a much better screen from the dust and traffic. What is more, similar shrubs and small trees along the length of the service lane would have augmented that.
Now that there is talk of putting in a sturdy grill to replace the existing insubstantial one, I pray that this time around my protests against slaying the remaining two sturdy and flourishing Bougainvilleas, are not in vain.
Plants are known to communicate with each other and today the “wood–wide web” theory has many takers. Like all living things, plants value being alive, and researchers have proved that when certain plants are cut, they emit a noise that can be interpreted as a scream.
Please let us stand sentinel over our Sentinels.
By Dr Savita Nagpal (B 86 South City 1)
