What will be world without trees? It will be a desolate, desert-like environment. Trees provide balm to eyes, green lung to the planet and solace to the soul. Besides they can also act as antennas for spiritual thought and Universal consciousness.
Gautam Buddha, Ramakrishna and other saints achieved enlightenment under a tree. It is said that even Newton got his idea of universal gravitation when an apple fell from the tree under which he was sitting.
Trees are nature's water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree's roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation. A 2008 study by researchers at Columbia University found that more trees in urban neighborhoods correlate with a lower incidence of asthma.
Trees have also been used as radio antennas by US and other armies. In fact they have found them to outperform other forms of electrical antennas .
Human thought which is also a form of electromagnetic wave (though we still do not know what its waveform is) could also be transmitted and received using trees as antennas. Natural systems use all the forces surrounding them. Through million years of evolution nature has developed a mechanism of transmitting low level signals through long distances using the surrounding media as transmitting agent.
Thus low level whale songs can be transmitted through thousands of kilometers in ocean. Similarly it is possible that low level signal that we call human thought could be transmitted to long distances with the help of trees as antennas. My personal experience has been that walking under a canopy of trees not only gives a sense of well being and happiness but also acts as spiritual antenna.
Thus it is in the interest of mankind to populate this planet with trees and forests. Besides nurturing us the trees will also provide a means of communication with beyond.
(The author is the Director and Hon. Secretary Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI). He could be reached at anilrajvanshi@gmail.com)