Here I stand, badly damaged and awfully hurt, looking at my dreadful enemies who seem careless and happy, knowing what their kind has done to our kind. My trunk is pressed against hard bricks and I am in excruciating pain. My branches don’t have space and my leaves are tangled and broken. In short, I am going through a punishment I do not deserve. Things weren’t like this ten years ago.

I am a fir tree who used to be happy and lived peacefully with my family and friends — the other fir trees. Birds chirped on me, cool breeze touched my trunk and my leaves swayed joyfully. The air used to be pollution-free, where not only I, but all the animals and birds would breathe fresh air. There was no fear.

But things didn’t last longer and soon humans took over the land — our land. Let me recollect how it all started.

It was a bright sunny day when the chloroplasts in my leaves were making delicious food for me and making me tickle. Each of us was enjoying the sunny day. Our food is the chloroplasts which capture light energy and turn it into chemical energy, so a sunny day is a good day for us.

I, my siblings, cousins and friends were playing a game of counting whose leaves had fallen the most. Quite queer for you, right? But not for us. We usually play this game when we are bored. Often times, our elders told us stories of unusual creatures that lived far away. We youngsters loved listening to the stories and experiences of our elders.

So on that day, when we were done having our food and done with the play, one of my uncles started telling us about the creatures that lived far away. He told us that these creatures stood upright and their hands and feet resembled those of monkeys, though less hairy. We were also told that they were very dangerous and they were called humans. After listening to this, we took a deep breath of relief as these strange beings were far away.

We were all enjoying the sun when suddenly, we heard the sound of the rustling of leaves. It felt like someone was stepping on them. This wasn’t very strange for us but the noise was of a big animal, while big animals did not usually come here. We didn’t know whether to be scared or surprised, because we didn’t have a slightest idea of what the creature was. The sound was getting closer and closer, and now we could hear buzzing, a little similar to bees. When this so-called ‘buzzing’ came closer we recognised it as a peculiar language. As we understand animal language, so this language was new for us.

We were scared of what creature had entered the jungle without our knowledge, because whenever any animal that didn’t belong to the forest enters, the birds, mostly sparrows, inform us about it. In a matter of seconds, those creatures were standing right in front of me. When I saw them, the description my uncle had given of the strange creatures flashed in my mind. I was horrified — they were humans.

All the trees were shocked. We were all standing there in a miserable state because our forefathers told us that wherever humans go, they carry destruction with them. They also spread pollution because of which we and other creatures begin having breathing problems and some of our young ones die.

I saw humans wearing something on their heads, and then one of my siblings told me that those were called hats. We saw them going through a lot of papers and putting their fingers frequently on them and pointing towards us. One of them came to me and patted my trunk, while the others moved around and surveyed the place.

After some time they went away. But it was followed by constant short visits by humans almost every day. It made us worried as we couldn’t guess what made the humans to come to our land. After a few days, when we were all busy in our daily routine of swaying with the wind and taking energy from the sun, we again heard some noises. But this time, the sounds were the scariest we had ever heard in our lives. The sounds came closer and closer, and suddenly, we heard the screams from the other trees at a distance.

We were petrified. We had never heard such dreadful shrieks of pain. As the cause of the harsh voice came into sight, I saw giant machines coming towards us. They were pulling my friends from the roots while others were cutting the trunks. The trees were screaming with pain and pleading for mercy, but of course, those humans didn’t care at all. The machines didn’t leave most of my relatives or my friends, they pulled and cut and didn’t show mercy at all.

I wanted to cry, I wanted shout as I saw my dear home being destroyed and all its inhabitants dying in just a few moments.

The machines had killed all my family and now one of it was coming towards me. The moment the machine’s huge claws touched me, it stopped with a jolt and the noise died away. After a few minutes, the machine started to work again and was taken away by the humans who were sitting on it. I thanked God that I was not killed, but at the same moment, I wondered what was the point of me living without my precious family and neighbourhood? My eyes, which were hidden between the branches, started shining with tears of sadness.

After a miserable week, to my great horror, the humans came again with queer tools and using these tools they started digging the ground. For days I saw them working and building something. Finally, it turned out to be a structure of stones and some wood that they had cut from my family. A board placed there by the humans proclaimed it to be a tourist spot and the building was a hotel for tourists.

As the construction continued, more buildings came up and their bricks started touching my trunk. I had so little space for my branches and roots to grow, some of which were broken and badly injured.

From that day onwards, I am suffering from a never-ending pain. The hotel has been made. And I see humans arriving at the hotel every day, in their lavish cars. Laughing and chatting carelessly, they don’t have a clue of what they have done to us, to the environment and, above all, to their own future.

I hope you understand, humans, that we are also alive, we can also feel pain and we also sense love. The earth is our home and we offer a home to so many different creatures. We provide you with oxygen and absorb the harmful carbon dioxide so that you easily breathe and the atmosphere can be pollution-free. We lower the temperature for you so that you don’t die of heat and because of our transpiration, you enjoy beautiful weather and rainfall. We also provide you with cool shade when you are tired and hot.

Please realise our importance and stop cutting us when it’s unnecessary. And when you do cut us down, do make sure that you plant some new trees so that our numbers do not go down as drastically as they have. We love you as I know some of you love us, too! There are many humans who water us and care for us. We trees hope from now onwards that you won’t hurt us needlessly.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 23rd, 2022