Don’t fool around, plant a tree!

A capital suggestion has been floated by members of the Floral Art Society, Rawalpindi-Islamabad chapter that instead of thinking of April 1st as fool’s day, we should think of it as a day to plant trees - or at least one. A ‘cool’ idea! Imagine how many trees can be planted if all our readers made up their minds to do so! Also, don’t forget to look after them until they have spread their roots and are strong enough to be on their own.

Climate change has been blamed for weather vagaries but according to experts its all because we have had merciless campaigns to cut down trees in the name of development. Roads are widened without taking into consideration the number of trees that will be lost. Buildings and plazas have been built where there used to be trees – lawns of houses have been got rid of and another building erected to rent out, while government offices that had large compounds now only have more living/office space with no tree in sight. No wonder we suffer from all sorts of complaints!

Parks provide some relief but here too there is more concrete than greenery, I guess because greenery is high maintenance while concrete is not. Researchers have discovered that simply living in areas with lots of trees can make a person both mentally and physically healthier. In fact, the study found that the more trees a street had, the healthier its residents were.