Cutting the branch we sit on

In India, almost every tree has a story running through it. The banyan, the fig tree, the eucalyptus - all trees are sacred because of their association with a divinity.

The Amazon rainforest is smouldering. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the forest has flamed out in a haze, gagging the skies with a dense, impenetrable layer. Closer home, in Mumbai, 2,000-plus bare stumps mark the spot that was once part of a forest, where in a bizarre show of one-upmanship between the state government and environmentalists, local authorities chopped down trees in the dead of night to clear the land for an upcoming metro shed. 

Never has the assault on nature been more brutal and the attitude more callous. In the US, the President does not flinch when he declares that