Does Delhi have many indigenous tree varieties?
In my book I describe some 260 species in all. This includes every single kind of tree that I have come across in this city, even a few that are represented by solitary specimens in private collections. Of the species strictly native to the Delhi region, I have counted 42. This is not a stable figure because at least three or four species that are known to be native have disappeared within living memory. But it has been fascinating puzzling out the native trees. The Ridge and the semi-wild outskirts of the city are, of course, interesting places to scout around for wild trees. But there are still places inside the city that protect — inadvertently, sometimes — tiny swathes of original forest. Even the Delhi Golf Course, in between the fairways, houses little galleries of native forest, and they can teach you a whole lot about the native flora or what’s left of it. Have many of Delhi’s trees been brought from outside the country? Yes, sometimes with disastrous effect. The most common
