All village tree planting efforts fail for lack of tree guards. Goats and buffaloes eat the plants. So the villager goes into the primary forest to cut trees because his village has no fuelwood. So it is a two pronged attack on the forest. In two years 500 KILOMETRES of forest have disappeared.

What does this all translate into in real terms?

The Moguls chose Delhi for the country's capitalbecause of its perfect location. Surrounded by the Aravalli mountain chain and with its own river, the Yamuna, flowing right through it , it was a self-sufficient and secure city. Wild boar and deer were plentiful. Today Delhi is one of the most polluted and unhealthy cities in the world. The once dense Aravallis are totally denuded and the wind carries sand and dust into the city. Delhi has a very high SPM (suspended particulate matter) level and a correspondingly high level of respiratory diseases.

India has taken loans totalling $ 54,000,000 from Japan to regreen the Aravallis. Even so,we have not been able to grow even a single blade of grass. Because the moment the grass appears, so do the goats.

The Aravallis used to be a major catchment area for rain water. The vegetation used to trap the water which used to seep into the soil and raise the water table. Now in the absence of any vegetation,the water runs off rapidly without percolating into the soil. As a result Delhi's water table has dropped drastically. This in turn has affected lifestyles. Rows of women must line up for hours at a stretch to fill a bucket of water. They must then choose between drinking and bathing and washing since it cannot stretch to all three. As it grows hotter, more energy is needed for fans and airconditioners. So more powerplants come in and the cycle of pollution and wastage of money goes on.