This is with reference to the report, "200-year-old banyan tree falls, real estate developer blamed - The Goan Everyday June 6, 2023." A real shocker surely, a 200-year-old banyan tree crashing down on the eve of World Environment Day. In the face of climate change - excessive heat conditions, erratic unseasonal rains, people still don't seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. According to the news report, this tree has crashed at a construction site and that a cursory look at the tree suggests that the roots were systematically cut and the mud around the tree was also excavated. If this is true, we need to sit up and think, why are we bent on committing environmental suicide? Is it only wealth we are after? What is all that wealth when our very lives are at stake? Does anybody care? Tough questions, surely. World Environment Day will come and go but whether man who live forever, remains to be seen.
