5 books on trees and Bengaluru's natural history

Our parks and avenues are starting to look resplendent again with pink, blue and yellow blooms. This reading list will help you unravel Bengaluru’s tryst with trees and gardens

Bangalore’s Lalbagh: A Chronicle of the Garden and the City

Art historian Suresh Jayaram brings together memories of visiting the Lalbagh Botanical Garden as a kid, stories by fellow Bengalureans, and information collated from public and private collections in this book published by Visual Arts Collective and Press Work last year. He explores the centrality of Lalbagh to the city’s history, through the eras of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan to the Mysore State and colonisers. He also pays an ode to the gardener communities that keep it green. His first book was on the life of German horticulturist GH Krumbiegel, one of the chief architects of Lalbagh.

Get on Amazon.in for Rs 800.

Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future

Harini Nagendra’s book explores Bengaluru from the prism of its famed moniker, The Garden City, and how unbridled urbanisation is threatening its environment. An ecologist, Harini argues in the book that our parks, gardens and lakes were not the legacies of the British but these are part of a much older and local ethos that values nature. It traces Bengaluru’s ecological history from the early 6th century till today. It was published by Oxford University Press India in 2016.

Buy on Amazon.in for Rs 450.

Trees of Bengaluru

This is not a book but a technical report by experts from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc. It offers great insights into the natural history of Bengaluru, from its evolution from a plateau overrun by thorny forests in the 17th century to its greening during the reigns of Hyder Ali and, later, the British. Bengaluru had an estimate of 14,78, 412 trees in 2014 when this report was published. Of which, you can find a glossary of 50 prominent trees here, annexing details like their scientific and common names, flowering season and locations.

Look up the report on wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in.

Heritage Trees in and around Bangalore

This book is a snapshot of what its author Vijay Thiruvady likes to call ‘the fabulous tree wealth of Bangalore’. At least 140 trees are described. Some are of botanical significance, others are culturally relevant. These can be found within Bengaluru and on the outskirts, such as the 400-year-old banyan tree Dodda Alada Mara in Tavarekere. Vijay is an engineer-turned naturalist and trustee of the Bangalore Environment Trust, also the book’s publisher.

Email [e-mail] to buy a copy for Rs 500.

Discover Avenue Trees: A pocket guide

As the title suggests, the book will help you in identifying trees that dot the city streets. Written by naturalist Karthikeyan S and published by EcoEdu in 2014, it lays out images of 50 species of avenue trees, from the yellow Indian laburnum to purple jacaranda, accompanied with details about their flowering season, leaves, seeds, country of origin, and birds and butterflies that call them home.

Available on ecoedu.in for Rs 210.