But, Have You Met a Tree?
Accordion Book
Stories with | Lakhiram Rongam, Phuntsog Dolma, Vena Kapoor, Joyshree Gogoi, Sadhana Ramchander, Nayantara Siruguri
Artist-Designer | Aditi Puttige
Concept Note
Plants and trees have always been around us and are our very source of life. Yet, there exists a tendency to see them in the background rather than the foreground. This is referred to as Plant Awareness Disparity. While it may be true for many, it is not the case for everyone. Lakhiram Rongam, Joyshree Gogoi, Phuntsog Dolma, Vena Kapoor, Nayantara Siruguri, and Sadhana Ramchander come from different landscapes across India, yet share friendships with trees and plants.
They see them as beings, beyond beauty and utility. The trees and plants are companions, soulmates, and peacebringers. They exist in the foreground of their landscapes. How do these friendships, rooted in joy, vulnerability, and peace, begin? Is there hope to be found in the face of deforestation—not only in forests but also in urban spaces where trees are cut or translocated?
How do they cope with, and sometimes even resist, the silence that follows the disappearance of trees? The narrative is a series of instances that emerged from conversations with these individuals, exploring the intertwined feelings of joy, hope, and despair experienced in the company of trees and plants.
Read here
About
Aditi Puttige
Aditi is a multidisciplinary artist-designer whose practice is deeply rooted in research-based narratives spanning themes from gender to conservation. With a bachelor’s in design in Information Arts and Information Design Practices, from Srishti Manipal Institute, her work is reflective in nature, and is nested in illustration, poetry, creative writing, and publication. Her artistic journey includes contributions to anthologies, editorial illustrations, and scriptwriting for theatre, alongside working with clay and experience in pottery. You’ll often find her travelling with her little sketchbook and drawing where she goes.
Lakhiram Rongam
Lakhiram is part of the special forces of a tiger watcher, a forest watcher in Pakke. He finds a deep sense of contentment walking under the canopy, discovering new species that he didn’t know of. But when he first came to Pakke and entered the forest, he had a very different experience.
Vena Kapoor
Vena is a nature educator who runs Nature Classroom. She suspects that her love for plants and trees came by just having them around. She especially loves the Honge tree that has been touching the balcony of her house for the last 15 years.
Joyshree Gogoi
Joyshree is the co-lead at the Green School in Gobuk where she spends time teaching and learning from the children about their surroundings and nature. Trees have always been there with her, through her childhood and have always been her friends.
Phuntsog Dolma
Phuntsog is a botanist by training and works as a Flock Supervisor in Ladakh, her nana (maternal grandfather) instilled the loved she feels for plants. She is the co-author of “Plants of Ladakh”. Her friends sometimes complain that she loves plants too much!
Sadhana Ramchander
Sadhana is a nature lover, and is part of the 'Save the Banyans of Chevella' movement to prevent the removal of 914 heritage banyans and 9000 other trees to make a national highway. She is an Editor by profession, and runs BluePencil Infodesign, a publishing support service.
Nayantara Siruguri
Nayantara is a conservation practitioner interested in cultural ecology and nature-based learning. She is fascinated by the way canopies hold space and time and raises lovely questions of why we have physical and psychological fences when interacting with trees and how we perceive them. A Baobab tree near her home in Mumbai is one of her closest friends.
© 2025 Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology and the individual artist-designers of the works. All rights reserved.