We, some of the oldest trees still standing our ground in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, wish to make a petition to the people of this province. We have come to know that the population of the province, where we have our deeply entrenched roots, has risen phenomenally to somewhere like 30.51 million, and perhaps even more to a higher figure since the aforesaid count is now a good five-months old. By thus quoting these figures of the living souls, we would like not to be seen to be merely grasping at the shadows, but reaching out to a great mass of people in full possession of their vibrant senses and sensibilities, in the hope that some, if not a great many, of them will empathize with our cause.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, a writer of great repute from Canada and one of our contemporaries from the late 19th century, had this to say about us in her beautiful writings, ‘The woods are never solitary – they are full of whispering, beckoning friendly life. The woods are human as they call to us with a hundred voices.’ While Lucy is no more, we are still here right in your midst, breathing though not without making considerable struggle as we see the world around us closing down.

Whenever and wherever someone from amongst you raised a voice in our favour, we escaped the woodcutter’s axe. But it is a life sans freedom as we find huge walls being built all around us. Earth is being dug out in our near about where we once had our roots and the gaping holes are being refilled with concrete.

We are not ordinary trees; we embody the finest quality of log known to the world. You have guessed it rightly; we are the conifers of various shades and hues, the chinars and walnut-trees of the hilly terrains, the rosewoods and oaks of the plains and numerous others. Our strength is such that with our broad fibrous trunks we can withstand a windstorm of considerable ferocity without making much of an effort.

Our greatest strength lies in protecting you from flash floods as we act as bulwark on the mountain slopes against the rampaging waters that may otherwise inundate your cities and your neighbourhoods and your ready for harvest crops on your sprawling agricultural lands. We sustain biodiversity and protect you from the harmful effects of toxic gases by inhaling the same as you must have studied thus in your primary, middle and elementary classes.

We would like to clarify here that we are totally different from some of the modern species of plants that you have been forced to familiarize with in the recent years. You have correctly identified these plants which are called by the name eucalyptus. It is perhaps owing to the prolific plantation of these peculiar trees that has made them into a household name in your milieus for otherwise, and quite ironically, very few people in KP know the names of and appreciate the incredible benefits of conifers like cedars, deodars, pines etc. Our only sin appears to be that we take a long time before we grow up like giants.

There is no dispute among the botanists as regards the unquenchable thirst of eucalyptus which have this queer habit of sucking water from every conceivable pore at the expense of other habitats. The plantation of the eucalyptus along the canals is as strongly disapproved of as it is pooh-poohed in the vicinity of green forest for while in the former case these so-called trees purloin water meant for your agricultural fields in the later case their avarice retards the growth of the fibrous trees.

Now, you must be wondering what immediate existential issue is at stake that has necessitated this long prologue. Your curiosity is indeed warranted and needs to be satisfied without further much ado.

Until recently, we the oldest trees of your region had quite a substantial presence in your cities and cantonment areas. We were quite proud of this as we considered ourselves as the veritable representatives of the greater mass of our kin on your hills and mountains. You simply need to be a little more discerning to see how we have withstood the tides of times in your backyards and on your roads right in the middle of where you live and move about at leisure. We do not feel inhibited in telling you that we lend beauty to your environs. Have you seen some of us in our full regalia with our broad brown and taupe colour trunks standing tall like reaching out for the heavens?

Some such trees have their muscular branches spread out so widely that you can literally accommodate the entire population of a middle school under their shade. We invite you to come and watch some such trees in and around the cantonment area in Abbottabad, especially on the several roads leading to the Shimla Hill. This area is of particular concern to us as it is here where we feel most threatened.

Dear folks, some people simply want us banished from their presence as if we were rather aliens than well-meaning life-supporting creatures.

People who want us thus vanish out of existence overnight occupy high positions of authorities in your cantonments and municipal offices. They get rid of us through their minions. You have to see those curmudgeons to believe how they rejoice at cutting our lifelines with their grotesque machines that work like roaring juggernauts. We beseech you to come to our rescue before it is too late as your feckless planners and developers of towns seem bent on seeing the last of us.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017