Gurgaon nature lovers join tree walk in Aravalli Biodiversity Park

In a city that is reeling under acute air pollution, mainly because of inadequate green cover, the tree walk helped shed some light on the importance of trees and how essential they are for mankind’s survival.

Gurgaon: The residents on Saturday took time out to understand the trees commonly found around them and help maintain the environment balance.

Kavita Prakash, a naturalist, who headed the walk, informed participants about the various trees. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

In a city that is reeling under acute air pollution, mainly because of inadequate green cover, the tree walk helped shed some light on the importance of trees and how essential they are for mankind’s survival.

‘The Sausage Tree Nature Walks’ was conducted in Biodiversity Park at Sector 52. More than 30 residents participated in the walk and studies the trees and plants.

Many residents said they were amazed to find trees such as the Ylang Ylang, which is used in Coco Chanel perfumes, right in their city.

Trees that were covered in the walk were the Kigelia africana (sausage tree), Pinus roxburghii (chir tree), Haplophragma adenophyllum (katsagon), jaggery palm, Cordia dichotoma (lasora), wild date palm, kosam, Albizia lebbeck (siris), Diopyros cordifolia (bistendu), Israeli babod, Krishna fig and Melia azedarach (bakain).

“I explained about the 12 trees and shrubs to the participants. The intent of ‘The Sausage Tree Nature Walks’ is to take a person closer to his immediate environment by simply identifying trees (by their common names) and through a few interesting facts and anecdotes,” said Kavita Prakash, a naturalist, who headed the walk and informed the participants about the various trees.

She also said that though Gurgaon has very few old trees, some of the trees indigenous to the area can be seen in the park.

Such walks aims to highlight the features of a full-grown tree and people get to know how these trees contribute to the environment.