Articles by Pitamber Kaushik

Pitamber Kaushik is a journalist, columnist, writer, strategy consultant, and independent researcher currently based out of Bengaluru. His writings have appeared in over 400 publications across 80+ nations. He has previously written in Asia Times, Brussels Times, New Humanist, International Policy Digest, The Hindu, Euroscientist, TerraGreen, Science Reporter, and Mongabay, among numerous other publications.

Late each winter, Bengaluru briefly transforms into an Indian Kyoto, as roads blush pink, office parks turn photogenic, and social media buzzes with claims of a local “cherry blossom” season. But the star of this spectacle is not cherry at all. It is Tabebuia rosea, the pink trumpet tree, a neotropical ornamental whose native range runs from Mexico to Ecuador. What seems like a harmless aesthetic win is, ecologically, far more complex. The history Bengaluru’s pink canopy is not new. Much of it can be traced back to the 1980s under forester S G Neginhal, who drove a major greening…

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