There was a time when the tomb behind South Extension I was a community hotspot, residents taking a break under stone canopies from walking under the boughs of a tree-lined avenue. The government colony in East Kidwai Nagar was a two-storeyed functional sprawl with plenty of open spaces shaded by old neem, ficus, flame of the forest, moringa and many more native trees. Children played under them, the old rested on benches. The farmers’ market spread out under their branches and local potters traded their wares. Now, the trees are lost forever as the area has been redeveloped and smartened up like a modern condo complex. The buildings have gone vertical, touching the sky, there’s a swanky new corporate tower with prized commercial space, paved walkways lined by imported palms and landscaped islands. As more colonies are redeveloped, Delhi is set to lose the protective cover of around 17,000 native trees! Although the government insists that new saplings would be planted and transplantation/translocation would happen elsewhere, which by reasonable logic is guaranteed to be outside city limits, the dusty haze over the lED-stringed facade is evidence enough of the loss of a much-needed green cover. Native trees act as soil retainers, dust barriers and more importantly as adaptive vegetation despite weather changes. Imported plants can never replicate the goodness of a palash, jamun or amaltas. In a bid to accommodate more people inside the city’s tight seams, we tend to forget that in the name of letting them breathe, they are being choked by the massive felling of trees. With air quality a matter of concern even in summer, it is time that we save the native greens we are left with. Or the city will become a giant dust bowl.