Only When the Last Tree is Cut Down

Musings on Earth Day

Megha Majumdar’s ‘A Guardian and a Thief’, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, is set in a dystopian near future Kolkata which is reeling from the combined impact of soaring temperatures, water scarcity and famine. The city is teeming with climate refugees, like Boomba, who were forced to migrate to the city because climate change and corporate greed affected all their traditional livelihoods leaving him no other option.

This might seem like the product of a febrile imagination, and we could be forgiven for thinking it doesn’t affect us. But something very similar to what happened in the Sundarbans in the book might play out in Mumbai when over 45,000 mangrove trees are cut or displaced due to a proposed coastal road. Mangrove forests support a unique biosystem which the local Koli community is dependent on for their livelihood. If the coastal road passes through the mangrove wetlands, both the biodiversity and the unique way of life will be lost, and – like Boomba in A Guardian and a Thief – the members of the community would become climate refuges in their own city.

The impact of the loss of these mangrove trees will extend way beyond the habitat loss and its impact on the local communities. Mangroves sequester carbon in the trunk, the roots, the leaves, and in the soil where the roots are anchored- when the trees are cut, all this carbon will be released into the atmosphere eventually leading to an increase in air temperature. All trees draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen- can a city which suffers from poor air quality for much of the year afford to lose so many trees?

In her book ‘The Genius of Trees’, which was also longlisted for the Women’s Prize, Harriet Rix makes a case for how trees shaped the land. Nowhere is this more evident than in the mangrove forests of Mumbai. Mangrove trees grow in the marginland between land and water, and they ensure that the creeks flow in their designated channels and the shoreline is protected from being eroded due to the flow of water and the ebb and flow of tides. The network of interlocking roots and trunks of the mangrove trees also serves as a barrier which reduces the energy of the waves that lash the shore. Removing this barrier will leave the city (including the proposed coastal road) more vulnerable to the elements and could result in increased damage in case of a cyclone or a storm surge.

The coastal road project is not the only project that has been designed without considering the environmental impact of the loss of original tree cover. This is because we as a nation have accepted that compensatory afforestation is sufficient to mitigate the loss of the original trees. This, however, is not the case because old tree growth sequesters more carbon, and provides superior water regulation than a newly planted tree.

While “development” is needed, the questions to be asked are “development for whom” and “development at what cost”. As the Cree Indian Prophecy goes- 

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught and the last stream poisoned, will we realise that we cannot eat money.

Suggested Reading 

https://india.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-environmental-costs-of-replacing-mangroves-with-a-road/