'Flame of the Forest'

 'Flame of the Forest'

It was all a long time about 9-10 years ago; I packed my bag to return to University after spending vacations at home. With the new sun rising at the crack of dawn, I was traveling in HP govt. Bus. To be precise, the bus was crossing the protected area of Pong Bird sanctuary near the Talwara Dam, the border area between Punjab and Himachal.

Sunlight was slowly changing its tinge from reddish to bright yellow. That miraculous phenomenon made surrounding vegetation striking green even more; fresh and rejuvenating new leaf buds were arranging their pattern for opening. That day was one of the last weeks of the March month with welcoming spring. My eyesight shifted to a far-standing medium-sized tree on a hillock. I couldn’t stick my vision over it as the bus was at the full pace without considering traffic in the early morning. Again, I saw the same plant species. This time, on another side of the previous one. After a bus turn, I missed that again. With the next turn, I notice there were a number of trees of the same species standing randomly and looked unique among all. These leafless trees were looking like having sharp orange ribbons tied and appeared as festoon overhead.

These trees were ‘Flame of the Forest’ aka Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub (F- Leguminosae).  I saw that tree the first time but recognized it with its sole flower dominance in that stand. Moreover, the silvicultural description of this tree was there in my mind. Especially, it is a light demander tree of Dry Deciduous Forest, which emerges as fire over crown when spring shifted toward summers. Hence, named ‘Flame of the forest’. Its flower color is dedicated to ‘shade of love’, which symbolizes beautiful springs' arrival.

Butea monosperma
Flowering time - Jan to April
PC - Rohit Kumar (Forestry Scholar)

While all the deciduous trees were emerging with green leaf buds. Here, Butea monosperma stand bestowed the site with splendid orange-red ‘color of love, to welcome all new leaves of surrounding tree communities.

Terribly, this tree is also named as ‘bastard teak’. Whereas, in Hindi, commonly acknowledged as ‘Palash’ or ‘Dhak’. There is a proverb named ‘Dhak ke teen pat’ which describes the effortless work which remains the same with no result as trifoliate leaves of the tree remain same throughout the season before shedding. And very few people knew about the origin of its Hindi name ‘Palash’. It is linked with the battlefield Plassey, where Britishers decisively won the battle over the Bengal Nawab of that time. That area ‘Palashi’ was believed to be covered with Dhak forest, somewhere near the Hoogli River (WB). This tree is very closely linked to history with respect to its importance, uses, and with its attractive flowers. 

Earlier its dried flower powder was used as Holi colors. People used to pluck flowers and soaked them in the water bucket overnight to get colored water (yellow-orange color) to play Holi the next day. Nowadays, these colors are being sold with exorbitant price in the name of ‘Organic Holi Colors’ as skin-friendly. We are forgetting our Indigenous knowledge and companies in the name of trendy innovations taking the patents and foremost profits from natural resources without benefit-sharing to traditional users. Moreover, they are creating the world of bio-piracy by holding authority over natural resources.

Every part of ‘Palash’ is bound to offer different kinds of uses. Like tree pollard well and act as good fodder source for livestock. Leaves are used for making dona ‘Biodegradable serving plates/cups’ and bidi wrappers where forest dwellers generate their nominal income from it. The tree also acts as a generous host for many avian spp. for shelter and insects/bees for pollination. It is also recommended for culturing Lac insect commercially. Palash is a good coppicer; its wood is recommended for pulping and so far. Other NTFPs like gum (Bengal Kino), fibers for making strong cordages, and medicines from the bark can be extracted from it. Not only bark, other parts of trees have important medicinal values as well. All aspect like medicinal values, uses; Phytochemical constituent; Pharmacological activities can get from the given link https://www.ukessays.com/essays/biology/literature-review-butea-monosperma.

                   

                     Seed/Pod time - March onwards to May (After Leaf and Flower shedding)

                                                                                    PC - Rakesh and Vaibhav Malviya (Forestry Scholars)

If we talk about the varietal wealth of Palash, we will regret our livings with development. Same genera with different varieties (with different colored flowers) were known to exist abundantly earlier on the Indian subcontinent. Like Butea monosperma var. alba (White Palash) has white-colored flowers; another variety has yellow-colored flowers, are now limited and restricted to some parts of central India only. It is hard to find these varieties in the ‘Era of Concrete’ development where we had lost most of the rare indigenous tree varieties and still losing. To cease this upcoming threat, we need to use our potential in the cause of conservation of natural resources.