New Delhi, June 5
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam chose to remember his 100-year-old friend Arjuna, with whom he shares his official residence at 10, Rajaji Marg, on World Environment Day today. Incidentally, Arjuna — the “biodiversity friend” — is a tree.

“I daily walk for about one-and-a-half hour, early morning and at night, at my home. My tree friend reveals something new whenever I take a walk. You can ask me, one single tree of 100, can it become a living post for biodiversity? I firmly say yes,” Kalam said, as he weaved a fascinating story for the audience at Vigyan Bhavan about his friend, botanically called Terminalia.

“The age of the tree and that of my parents is almost the same. My father lived 103 years and my mother 90-plus,” Kalam said as he spoke about his tall friend’s relationship with others in the vicinity — about the 300-kg honey in a beehive on the tree, guarded by thousands of working honey bees, who seasonally collect nectar from flowers in his garden, about mynas, sparrows, black crows, cuckoos and parrots, to whom Arjuna provides shelter.

“My tree gives in all seasons beautiful shadows to living beings… I have seen peacocks dancing in numbers around the tree. Then the peahen select inside the bush around the tree, a choice for laying seven to 10 eggs… This lifecycle, we see every year,” he said.

Kalam said biodiversity of the nation could be the basis of achieving triangular growth mission of ecological conservation, societal empowerment and economic development. “Wherever you are, whatever you do, you can certainly make a difference to the environment and conservation of biodiversity. It may be home, may be school or college or it may be work centre or walking path on the road or garden,” he said.