The old man and the tree: A fable from Second Main Road Kotturpuram

A freshwater mangrove that has thrived on an avenue illustrates the need for greater awareness about our green neighbours

In Aesop’s The Woodcutter and the Trees, the axe the trees help the woodcutter fashion is cruelly turned on them. Deeper meanings have been milked out of this fable, some with convoluted reasoning. The meaning that needs to be — and in all likelihood, meant to be — taken away from it is just this: betrayal of trust. Reading between the lines, betrayal waits to happen to the defenceless. The betrayal may often be unintended, being unthinkingly handed out to them. For Shobha Menon, founder-trustee of Nizhal, a lone and full-grown barringtonia acutangula tree on Second Main Road in Kotturpuram has assumed a similarly “fablesque” stature over the years. She underlines how it recently became a victim of unintended betrayal, as the gashes on its body show.