Auroville

Pirate Ship TreeHouse

The kids of Auroville, a conscious-living community on the southeast coast, have a wonderful pirate-ship treehouse to play in.

At Sadhana Forest, this sapling is the tallest of a collection of trees planted by schoolkids. Appropriately, Saumya was the tallest student.

A small restaurant in Auroville is built around a striking banyan tree

Another grand, ancient tamarind at Auroville, this one named after Aurobindo’s French-born comrade, a woman known as the Mother.

The grandest tamarind I found in Auroville was named after the city’s founder, Sri Aurobindo, a renowned Indian freedom fighter and philosopher

A big banyan in Auroville is used as a place for people to tie cloths, representing their wishes.

A big African mahogany grows over the edge of the Solar Kitchen cafe at Auroville, where food is cooked by the magnified rays of the sun.

A great climbing tree near Sadhana Forest, near the powerlines but not so close as to cause any danger.

Just outside of the Sadhana Forest, a stand of Palmyra palms stand well above the fields and casuarina plantations

At Delhi’s zoo, near the Purana Qila Old Fort, a broad Tree of Heaven offers shade to auto-wallahs and the occasional book-seller.