ON KILLING A TREE



“Modern man, out of his indiscriminate selfishness dares to uproot Nature and its very soul” – Evaluate this statement with reference to the poem “ON KILLING A TREE”.Gieve Patel belongs to the present day generation of Indian poets writing in English. He is one of those writers who subscribe themselves to the “Green Peace Movement”. His poems give expression to his anxiety and bitterness at man’s cruelty to Nature.
Patel’s “On Killing a Tree” is a poem which presents a graphic picture of the total annihilation of a tree. In the poem the tree symbolizes Nature. Modern man out of his indiscriminate greed and selfishness roots out nature and its very spirit. Man’s greed is not quenched by the mere physical process of killing a tree.Man realizes that it is not easy to kill a tree because it has grown slowly consuming the earth and absorbing water, air and sunrise for years. The mere act of hacking and chopping is not sufficient to kill a tree. The tree overcomes man’s onslaught by branching off small stems close to the ground and resumes life and grose again to its former size.
Knowing a tree’s power to come to life again, man decides to pull out the root of the tree. Like a butcher, he makes several cuts in the tree and cuts it down. He then cuts it into several convenient pieces. Still his greed is not quenched. Man is determined not to allow Nature a second life. He makes a deep cavity on the earth and roots out the tree which uses anchored safety inside the earth. The earth has so far protected and fed the tree like a mother. But, the cruel man uproots this safety.After pulling the tree down, the man further subjects it to various processes of rendering it fit for commercial purposes. He further tortures the tree by scorching and choking it in sun and air. He also subjects the tree to various methods such as browning and hardening. With this, the total killing of the tree is complete. Man is ensured that the tree has no second life. “And then it is done” says the speaker triumphantly.
The poet describes mans cruelty to nature with bitter irony and detachment. But his own sympathy is with Nature. The poem is a telling commentary on one of the major environmental issues that encounters modern man.

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