In your cover story "The last green lung” (Parsiana, February 7-20, 2021) I was delighted to read about Dr Rashneh Pardiwala being associated with re-foresting the Doongerwadi estate using only native trees. I know the vital importance of this as in my Khandala ancestral home of nearly five acres on a hill slope only native trees have thrived over the 165 years of ownership.
Such trees take care of themselves, attract birds that nest in them, and hold the soil despite severe monsoon conditions and steep slopes. Moreover, such trees have a grandeur of their own that led me decades ago to start a library on the trees of India in different regions.
It is only fitting that the souls in the Towers of Silence at Doongerwadi should be guarded and surrounded by native trees, seeded in the origins of that land.
NAWSHIR D. KHURODY
ndkhurody@gmail.com
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