Trees are our best friends because they clean the air we breathe. Likewise, they also clean the water and soil ultimately make the earth a better place. It also a fact that people who live near the tree are fit, healthier and happier than the people who do not. Moreover, it is our responsibility to take care our friends who serve us in many ways. So, today I am going to write the essay through the eyes of the tree.

I am 60 years old tree. I have seen a lot of up downs in my life since my childhood. I remember those days when there were so many friends like me around me. I was so happy to see them. We used to talk and play. We were so glad to see that people who give me water, nutrients to us and people used to sit under the shade of us in the summer afternoon. Children play hide and seek and hide behind us they make swing on us and enjoy the game. We would stand bravely and hug each other. That storm couldn’t do us any harm. In those days, so many natural disasters came and went, but remain strong, my roots deep in the ground, connecting me to every thing around me.

But I don’t know what had happened that day that some people came and cut all the trees near me and fortunately I was left. After 10 years, I saw a big building, lots of vehicle on the road. There were no people, no children only vehicle and noise. I was feeling alone, my roots become weak and I was not strong as earlier. Now, I always live with fear that storm will come and I will die. I always felt suffocated by the smoke coming out of the vehicles.

I don’t where were the people gone who look after us, give water and enjoy under my shade. They did not have feelings for us. Now, they sit a home, breathes A.C, s air, drank cold water of refrigerator and due to which most of the stay ill and take medicines for stay alive. They forget the freshness of air, coolness of water and enjoy the rain. Now disaster come very oftenly and destroy everything. Deforestation not only causes pollution but also causes soil erosion, global warming and ecological imbalance. This not only happened in my area but in many places around the world. All the people are suffering from the effects of deforestation. People cut down the trees only for their benefits. It means “LITTLE GAIN, BIG LOSS”

In 1970, I heard about the movement done by the people of Reni Village, Uttarakhand popularly known as ‘CHIPKO MOVEMENT’. It was a non-violent movement aimed at protection and conservation of trees and forest from being ruined. The name of Chipko movement originated from the ‘embrace’ as the villagers used to hug the trees and protect from the wood cutters from cutting the trees.

I felt very happy to hear about Chipko movement and also wondered why not everyone like them protect trees? This is the reason that people in rural areas are much healthier and fit as compared to the people of cities.

My ancestors told me the story in which the Bishnoi’s family had stopped the cutting of trees in the year 1731. In this story, the king of jodhpur in Rajasthan asked one of his ministers to arrange a wood for constructing the palace. The minister and worker went to forest near a village, inhabited by Bishnoi’s to cut down the trees. A Bishnoi woman Amrita Devi showed exemplary courage by hugging a tree and daring king’s men to cut her first before cutting the trees. The tree mattered much more to her than her own life. Sadly, the king’s men did not heed her pleas and cut down the trees along with Amrita Devi. Her three daughters and hundreds of other Bishnoi’s followed her and thus lost their lives in the saving the trees. This incident inspired several other rural women, who launched such similar movements in different parts of India. The Chipko protests achieved a major victory in 1980 with 15 years ban on trees felling in the Himalayan Forest of the state by the order of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

To conclude, “PLANT A TREE TODAY, FOR BETTER TOMORROW” I can say that I am very important and beneficial for every life form on earth. Without me, the survival of life on earth will become difficult and after sometime every species starts to die because of lack of oxygen on the planet. So, to save your lives and to survive, you have to learn the importance of trees and also teach your children the importance of trees.

Now, I want to end my essay with a slogan: “Trees are the poems that earth rides on the sky”