Light And Dark Matters

A few years ago, a disturbing realization came upon me and it was:

Homo sapiens is the only diurnal species that carries out normal daytime activities after sunset.

The discord created by this realization led me to understanding the health implications of altering our environment to suit our ever-changing comfort levels; and also to making changes in our lives to realign ourselves with natural cycles. In this blog post I will write about this journey. The only environmental factor I take into consideration here is light.

According to archaeological records, Homo sapiens started walking the earth nearly 200,000 years ago. We are still biologically the same as those initial men and women. But ever since the advent of artificial lighting, human race doesn't experience natural light and darkness the way it did for thousands of years. 

Thoughts and questions such as these bothered me deeply -- Artificial lighting is hardly a century old technology. What is a century or a few in geological time scales? Not even an insignificant blip! How can our evolutionary needs for light and darkness change in that short amount of time? Won't human body's mechanisms, that have evolved to take in natural light and darkness as their cues, go awry because of our modern ways of living? Natural light and darkness are free for everyone. But still how many actually meet the human body's requirement for these? I moaned for the terrible loss of natural light and darkness from most people's lives. 

First, some science: The color components of visible light include violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. White light is a mixture of all these lights. So is the visible light component of sunlight. The blue component of the visible light spectrum is known to wake us up and keep us on our toes by secreting a hormone called cortisol. Following the natural cycle of the sun, as the day wanes so should cortisol production. As the sun sets, in response to darkness a hormone called melatonin gets secreted. This hormone plays a key role in regulating our sleep. This beautiful dance between cortisol and melatonin maintains the day-night cycle and circadian rhythms.

Sleep-wake cycle from Dr. Eliza Klearman's website:

Now let us see how modern ways of living cause disruptions to this optimal cycle. Most of our houses are not built to let much sunlight in. Most people don't get exposed to sunlight in the early morning hours. Also because of being indoors at work or school, there is never enough exposure to sunlight during the day. But there is plenty of exposure to light in the evening hours when our bodies (evolutionarily) can't handle it. Now with the devices we suddenly have bright blue light in our lives in the evening when there used to be moonlight or darkness, just a few decades ago. This delays (may also inhibit) the onset of melatonin production and causes sleep disruption among many other problems. 

A little bit of anatomy: Human eye has two kinds of photoreceptor cells -- rods and cones. Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels and cones function when there is bright light. 

Human settlements now have well-lit homes, roads, public transport and indoor spaces. I was curious to know what happens to rod cells when there is no dim light at all for many years. I couldn't find any pat answer online. My guess is that the rod cells lose their efficacy since they haven't been used. I have seen the difference in night vision between city folks (used to a lot of artificial lights in the evening) and village folks. In the absence of a bright light in the night, the former can't navigate even in their own apartments; a dim light or darkness just doesn't work for them. Village folks on the other hand are undeterred by darkness outdoors and are confident about their unaided night vision.

All this understanding helped us realize that many conscious choices had to be made to realign ourselves to our evolutionary needs. We now live on a farm where we are outdoor a lot during the morning hours, soaking in a lot of sunlight. In the evening hours we have only warm-yellow LED lights (max 3w) lighting our indoors. The blue component of these lights are insignificant. Dev has a pair of blue light blocking glasses which he uses when needed. We have installed a blue light filter software on our computer. In the night, while sleeping, we have no artificial light indoor or outdoor. 

If you are interested in exploring this subject further, here are some pointers:

Dr. Satchin Panda on the importance of darkness

https://www.darksky.org/

Harvard University's research on blue light and sleep

Dyeing & Dying

Even in a village like ours, these days it is hard to find middle-aged or elderly people with grey hair. Pretty much everyone dye their hair jet black. For a few decades now, this has been the norm in cities.  Acceptance of the natural process of aging is fast getting obliterated. When we fail to accept our own aging, we are likely to fail to accept the aging of our loved ones. We are likely to hold on to people who should have long been gone. To elaborate on this, I would like to bring up a personal example.

For several years, Dev’s dad (papa) was severely diabetic. When he was over 70, he was diagnosed of (advanced stage) Parkinson’s.  Later he broke his pelvis which restricted his movement further. Being far away in California, we felt that the only help we could extend was to employ a caregiver. This lessened the burden on Dev’s mom during the day. She still had to care for papa in the night. This was slowly taking a toll on her health, since she couldn’t ever get a good night’s sleep.    

When we moved to India in 2012, we stayed with Dev’s parents.  That was when we realized the futility behind what was happening there. Papa’s life was being extended by prolonging his dying.

His face was absolutely expressionless. He had very little flesh on his bones. He could hardly move, eat or talk. He needed assistance with everything. We could smell the decaying bed sores.

This left us wondering about life, “What’s all this medical care for? For keeping a dying man in bed a bit longer? How do poor people deal with such situations?” Also we strongly felt the need to reassess the situation by looking at it from papa’s perspective.

We initiated a conversation with Dev’s mom to understand what was keeping her going. We came to know that she was not given the full picture of papa’s illness. She didn’t really know how bleak the situation was. We slowly and carefully divulged the medical info that we had access to. We wanted to gradually decrease all the medicines except pain killers. After an initial period of resistance and reluctance, she followed through.

I wanted to focus on helping papa be happy – however short-lived that was for. I used to sit by his side, sing to him, and once in a while feed him some ice-cream (his absolute favourite). During one such feeding he hurriedly said “Quick! Quick!” and tears started rolling down his sunken cheeks. After a few weeks papa had a brain hemorrhage and was taken to the hospital. He was in coma. Again, we had to make the difficult decision of bringing him home and not prolong his stay in the hospital.  At home papa was hooked up to an oxygen cylinder. In a few days, with some of us next to him he passed away.

I see certain aspects of this narrative getting repeated in so many cases, among our friends and relatives. I see people wanting to hang on to the lives of dying ones too dearly. Our modern culture lacks mindfulness of death. Tibetan Buddhism, on the other hand, focuses a great deal on death. 

Here is an interesting article on "Death and dying in Tibetan Buddhism" from Frontline, PBS.

-- Hema

Helplessness -- actively taught and learned

Here in this post I plan to address a key issue with modern day parenting in affluent families, whereby the kids are actively taught to be helpless.

First I will cite some scenarios from our village:

Cheenu, a four year old boy, accompanied his dad who was a labourer working on our house foundation. Any middle or upper class parent would find the construction site to be full of hazards for a child of his age -- foundation trenches, big stone piles, people hand-carrying big stones etc. Obviously, Cheenu's dad didn't think so; neither could he afford to. His family situation was such that Cheenu had to be brought to work if he is off from school. Though it was a hot day (38 deg C),  Cheenu was as cheerful in this site as you would find a small child playing in a park. After sticking with his dad initially, he started mimicking what the other adults were doing -- which was to hand-carry stones. He took his job seriously. He carried stones that were big for him and wouldn't pick up anything that was not challenging. I was feeling sorry for this child and tried offering him smaller stones. He simply ignored me and continued working. I understood much later the condescending nature of my behaviour towards Cheenu and his work. And since Cheenu was not conditioned yet, his response towards me was authentic even if it would be considered rude or impolite.

Shephards' kids (less than ten years of age) carry a sharp billhook, climb a tree, lop branches and haul them home to feed their cattle. This is part of their daily routine. They learn to use this sharp tool, manuver their way up the tree with the tool tucked into their pants on the rear side. Girls learn to cook on wood-burning stoves from the age of eight or so. It is not considered particularly dangerous. It is not uncommon to find little girls cook a meal for the entire family. These kids also go to school. Young kids are indispensable contributors in such families. 

Now, I will compare and contrast the above situations with "normal" middle or upper class families.

Barring a few exceptions, these children are overprotected. They typically don't get involved in household chores and hardly get a chance to use the fire or tools. They are assisted by the adults almost always and they are not expected to take on responsibilities.

Here are some excerpts from some of our interactions with affluent visitors from the city:

- This family came with their eight year old boy. I suggested to my kids to take their new friend to get milk from our milk lady. The walk was hardly hundred meters. They had to cross a not-so-busy village road.  The mom immediately intervened saying, "Oh, my son shouldn't go. He doesn't know how to walk on roads. He will hurt himself in the traffic." Having observed this eight year old for a day, I didn't think that the mom's statement was true.  Nevertheless we dropped the idea.

- This child was seven years old. I had made some boiled eggs for lunch. At the table, he was watching my kids eat their egg and was waiting for one of his parents to show up and peel one for him. When Abhi suggested that he can try to do it himself, he was quite surprised. Apparently this suggestion was never made before at his home! With a bit of help, he happily peeled the egg and ate it.

- This time it was a ten year old girl. Knowing that pomegranate was one of her favourites,  I offered one to her. With a perplexed look she said, "but I have never peeled a pomegranate before. can you please peel it for me?"  We helped her with the process and noticed that she was happy to do things for herself.

Now, my musings about this:
Time and again I have seen that small kids have a strong desire to participate in the adult world by doing what the adults are doing. Although they initially resist the conditioning to give up independence, they eventually do become helpless. Kids that are expected to be helpless are likely to grow up into adults with the same attitude. We once had a twenty-five year old visitor who couldn't wash his plate or glass since he didn't know how to use a scrubber!

In hunter-gatherer societies, kids get involved in real life. They start using knives and other tools from a very young age.  There are many examples of this in the book "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff. Evolutionarily speaking, it must have been very important for little children to learn life skills and become useful and independent. If not, he or she would be a burden on the migrating tribe.

Repeatedly I see evidences to conclude that children meet the expectations, whatever they may be, of the adults around them. Here is another post I wrote earlier on this topic.

-- Hema

Weddings And Funerals

Sanchayya was only 52 when he passed away recently. He lived in the village nearby and used to work for us occasionally. We had known him for six years. An honest person in spite of being very poor. Dead Sanchayya looked just as if he was blissfully asleep, not worrying in his usual way. His sudden death rattled us.

*

We immigrated to the US in the late 90's and lived there for thirteen years. During all those years we never went to any funeral or wedding. For us, funerals and weddings were events that happened in India. We had friends who were mostly of our age, not multi-generational. Unmarried friends traveled to India to get married. Growing up in California, our kids got to welcome many newborn babies of our friends. Typically grandparents would travel from India to help the young (working) couple during post-partum and with the raising of the newborns. Young Abhi once remarked that India was the land of grandmas. All the grandparents that he knew were from India. Death never figured in our lives. We got the news always over the phone from India. The kids either didn't know or remember the person I was mourning for. Not participating in weddings and funerals were gnawing at me. I felt that our (immigrant) lives were not complete.

*

When we moved to India in 2012, Dev's dad was already bed-ridden for long. We decided to spend a few months with him. All of us got to see the process of dying, slow passing away. He died one morning when some of us were right next to him. Our experiences there brought forth many inevitable discussions about life and death with the kids. In the last few years here we have seen the deaths of many people -- relatives, acquaintances and friends. Things slow down for some time after these events -- remembering the dead, mourning and contemplating about the cyclical nature of our lives. 

Locally there is a very high level of participation whenever there is a death in the vicinity. First of all they call off work. The practice is to definitely pay homage to the dead, anytime and every time they hear such news -- however remotely they were connected. Thus local people would go to a funeral every one or two months. Even if they were to take these visits customary, they are constantly reminded of death and its lack of bias. I wonder if this helps them accept death when it happens in their own family; many times I have heard them say in a matter-of-fact manner "his/her time was up. no one can hold back such a person".

-- Hema

Burning Hills

We get two spells of monsoon every year – southwest (July, August) and northeast (October, November). Thus during the second half of the year, the grasses on the surrounding hills provide food and nourishment to the local cattle.  Some fast-growing native plants have taken root on the hills and have started growing in to young trees. Come February, the effects of the monsoon are long gone. The soils are dry and heat starts going up (above 35 deg C). The beautiful lush green rolling hills are turning brown. The shepherds are beginning to think about buying cattle feed. The desperation for cattle food gets intense as days go by. 

One fine morning we hear crackling sounds in the distance. We know enough now to fear for the lives of all the thousands of creatures that have made their homes in these hills. The sound is now accompanied by smoke. In a few minutes we catch a glimpse of the raging fire. Man made. The fire displays its ferocity, leaping over huge boulders and engulfing everything that is in its way.

A road and a creek, approximately 300 meters, between us and the foothills of the burning hills. From the comforts of our house we helplessly watch the fire sweep from west to east. The scale of this fire makes it one of the most horrible and disturbing sights. The hills that were green in the morning are burnt to ashes in less than an hour. Grasses, young plants, thorny trees, nests, young hatch-lings, eggs, bugs, worms, snakes, wild hares. All wiped clean. Just so there can be new blades of fresh grass, if and when there are summer showers. The new growth can then feed the cattle for some time before the next monsoon sets in. Also walking up and down the burned hills will now be easier and less hazardous. This is a typical shepherd’s way of thinking.

Seven years ago when we came here looking for land I saw this man-made fire for the first time in my life. It left me unsettled for many days. I felt compelled to do something about it. But the ease and discreetness with which someone could destroy the life on the hills soon put things in perspective.
Wind, rain and birds ensure that a good mix of native plants come up on the hills. Why can’t these hills be allowed to have native trees grow big and tall? Those trees can then be lopped and fed to the cattle. After all, the native trees and shrubs (neem, palm, teak, muddy, avaram, caloptropis g., dodonaea v., Acacia spp.) don’t take very long to get well established. If only small sections of these hills can be left alone, untouched by humans (and the fire they make) we can create a paradise around us. But the growing demands for milk and meat won’t let that happen.
Such is the tragedy of the commons.

-- Hema

Biodiversity

 

A place teeming with life – plants covering the ground, herbaceous plants, vines, shrubs, small trees, tall trees and mycelial networks.

A place that can eventually sustain itself because of the complex ecosystem that slowly got established there.

A safe haven for worms, insects, reptiles, birds, small mammals and a whole bunch of micro-organisms.

A place that offers food, fresh air, timber, medicine and shade from the scorching heat.

A place with rich colors, scents, natural sounds and textures.

We wanted to create such a bio-diverse place. In Permaculture this would be called a seven layered forest.  Over the last six years we have prevented grazing, planted trees, broadcasted native seeds and aided the growth of native trees that came up on their own.  Our once-barren land is now home to about 1500 young trees.  We hope this paves way for the creation of a place that closely resembles the most-threatened tropical dry and evergreen forests (TDEF).

A list of all the perennials growing here:

1.	Family	Scientific Name	Local Names	Notes	Uses
2.	Anacardiaceae	Lannea coromandelica	Odiya maram (Tamil), Gumpuni (Telugu)	Tree, fast growing	Mulch, Fodder
3.	Anacardiaceae	Mangifera indica	Mango	Tree	Fruit, Timber
4.	Annonaceae	Annona reticulate	Ram phal	Tree	Fruit
5.	Annonaceae	Annona squamosa	Seetha phal	Tree	Fruit
6.	Annonaceae	Artabotrys hexapetalus	Manornajitham (Tamil)	Vine	ornamental
7.	Annonaceae	Polyalthia longifolia	Mast tree, False Ashoka	Tree	Avenue tree, Timber
8.	Apocynaceae	Calotropis gigantea	Erukku (Tamil)	Shrub	Medicinal plant, fibre
9.	Apocynaceae	Wrightia tinctoria	Veppalai (Tamil), Reppala (Telugu)	Tree	Medicine, Timber
10.	Arecaceae	Borassus flabellifer	Indian palm, Toddy palm, Palmyra palm	Tree	Roof material, Sap, Timber
11.	Arecaceae	Cocos nucifera	Coconut	Tree	Fruit, Oil, timber, Roof material
12.	Arecaceae	Phoenix sylvestris	Wild Date Palm, Eecham (Tamil)	Tree	Fruit, Fibre
13.	Asparagaceae	Agave spp.	Agave	Succulent plant	Live fence, fibre
14.	Asphodelaceae	Aloe vera		Succulent plant	Medicine
15.	Asteraceae	Sphaeranthus indicus	East Indian Globe Thistle, Vada-malli (Tamil)	Small plant
16.	Asteraceae	Tithonia diversifolia	Mexican Sunflower, Tree Marigold	Shrub	Ornamental, mulch, green manure
17.	Asteraceae	Tridax procumbens	Coatbuttons, Balapaaku (telugu), vettukaaya poondu (Tamil)	Ground cover	medicine
18.	Bignoniaceae	Millingtonia hortensis	Tree Jasmine, Mara malli (Tamil)	Tree, fast growing	Avenue tree, wind break
19.	Bignoniaceae	Spathodea campanulata	Nandi flame, African tulip	Tree	Ornamental
20.	Bignoniaceae	Tecoma stans	Yellow bells	Shrub	Ornamental
21.	Boraginaceae	Tournefortia argentea (aka Heliotropium foertherianum)			Ornamental
22.	Caricaceae	Carica papaya	Papaya	Small tree	Fruit
23.	Casuarinaceae	Casuarina equisetifolia	Savukku (Tamil)	Evergreen tree	Timber
24.	Celastraceae	Cassine glauca	Nerdi, Neridi (Telugu)	evergreen tree	Timber, Medicine
25.	Colchicaceae	Gloriosa superba	Sen-kandhal (Tamil)	Vine, Pernennial Herb	Poison, Medicine
26.	Combretaceae	Terminalia arjuna	Arjuna	Large tree	Timber
27.	Combretaceae	Terminalia catappa	Indian almond, badam (Tamil)	Large tree	Nut
28.	Convolvulaceae	Cuscuta reflexa	Dodder	Parasitic vine
29.	Erythroxylaceae	Muntingia calabura	Singapore Cherry, Japanese Cherry, Nei palam (Tamil), gaza gaza pandu (Telugu)	Shrub or tree	Fruit, shade
30.	Euphorbiaceae	Jatropha gossypiifolia	Jatropha	Shrub
31.	Fabaceae	Bauhinia acuminata		Shrub
32.	Fabaceae	Cajanus cajun	Pigeon Pea, Perennial toor, Perun thuvarai (Tamil)	Shrub, legume	Lentils
33.	Fabaceae	Cassia javanica	Chin-rala cheddu (Telugu)	Tree, legume	Ornamental
34.	Fabaceae	Clitoria ternatea	Sangu poo (Tamil), butterfly pea	Climber, legume	Ornamental, fodder
35.	Fabaceae	Millettia pinnata (aka Pongamia pinnata)	Pungai (Tamil)	Tree, legume	Shade, Biofuel, oilcake as fertilizer, mulch, green manure
36.	Fabaceae	Tephrosia purpurea	Kollukkai Velai (Tamil)	Herbaceous small shrub, legume	green manure
37.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Bauhinia purpurea	Mandarai	Tree, fast growing, legume
38.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Cassia (Senna) alata		Shrub or small tree, legume
39.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Senna alexandrina aka Cassia angustifolia		Shrub, legume	Ornamental
40.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Cassia (Senna) auriculata	Avaram	Shrub, fast growing, legume	Medicinal
41.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Cassia fistula	Sara konnai (Tamil), Amaltas (Hindi)	Tree, legume
42.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Cassia (Senna) siamea	Thangdi	Tree, fast growing, legume	Mulch
43.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Leucaena leucocephala	Su-babool	Tree, fast growing, legume	Mulch
44.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Prosopis julifora	Veli-kaththan (Tamil)	shrub or small tree, fast growing, legume	Firewood, Fodder
45.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Caesalpinioideae	Saraca asoca	Ashoka	Tree, legume
46.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Butea monosperma	Porasu, Flame of the forest	Tree, Legume
47.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Dalbergia latifolia	Eetti  (Tamil)	Tree, legume	Timber
48.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Dalbergia sisoo	Sheesham (Hindi)	Tree, fast growing, legume	Timber
49.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Erythrina indica aka Erythrina vareigata	Kalyana Murungai (Tamil)	Deciduous tree, legume
50.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Gliricidia sepium	Rubber Tree	Medium-sized tree, fast growing, legume	Mulch, green manure
51.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Pterocarpus marsupium	Vengai (Tamil)	medium to large deciduous tree, legume	Timber
52.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Pterocarpus santalinus	Red Sanders, sen sandhanam (Tamil), Raktha sandhanam (Telugu)	tree, legume
53.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Faboideae	Sesbania grandiflora	Agathi (Tamil)	Small tree, fast growing, legume	Edible leaves, Mulch
54.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Acacia chundra	White bark acacia, vel velam (Tamil)	deciduous tree, legume
55.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Acacia catechu	Karunkali (Tamil)	deciduous tree, legume	Firewood, fodder
56.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Acacia nilotica aka Vachellia nilotica	Karu velam (Tamil)	Tree, legume	Timber, resin, medicine, fodder
57.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Albizia lebbeck	Kattuva (Tamil), Dirsun (Telugu)	fast growing, legume	Timber
58.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Pithecellobium dulce	Manilla tamarind, Kodukkapuli (Tamil)	nearly evergreen tree, legume	Fruit
59.	Fabaceae, Sub-Family: Mimosoideae	Tamarindus indica	Tamarind, Puli (Tamil), Chinta (Telugu)	Tree, legume	Fruit, Timber
60.	Lamiaceae	Ocimum tenuiflorum	Holy basil, tulsi	Shrub	Herb, medicine
61.	Lauraceae	Cinnamomum tamala	Bay leaf, pattai (Tamil)	Tree	Spice
62.	Loganiaceae	Strychnos nux-vomica	Etti (Tamil)	deciduous tree	Medicine
63.	Lythraceae	Lawsonia inermis	Marudani (Tamil), Gorintaku (Telugu), Mehndi (Hindi), Henna (Hindi)	Tall shrub or small tree	Dye, Scent, Medicine
64.	Lythraceae	Punica granatum	Pomegranate	deciduous shrub	Fruit
65.	Malvaceae	Hibiscus spp.	Hibiscus, sembaruthi (Tamil)	herbaceous plant	Ornamental
66.	Malvaceae	Thespesia populnea	Poovarasu	Tree
67.	Meliaceae	Azadirachta indica	Neem, Veppam (Tamil), Vepa (Telugu)	Tree, fast growing	Timber, mulch, medicinal
68.	Meliaceae	Melia dubia	Malai vembu	fast growing	Avenue tree,
69.	Meliaceae	Swietenia mahagoni	Mahogany	Tree	Timber
70.	Moraceae	Artocarpus heterophyllus	Jack fruit	evergreen tree	Fruit, Timber
71.	Moraceae	Ficus carica	Common Fig, Anjeer (Hindi)	deciduous tree	Fruit, Medicine
72.	Moraceae	Ficus racemosa	Athi, Fig	Understorey tree	Fruit
73.	Moringaceae	Moringa oleifera	Murungai (Tamil), Drumstick	Tree, fast growing, drought-resistant	Fruit, Edible leaves, Oil
74.	Musaceae	Musa spp.	Banana	herbaceous flowering plant	Fruit, edible inner stem
75.	Myrtaceae	Eucalyptus spp.	Eucalyptus, Thaila maram (Tamil)	Tree	Timber, medicinal oil
76.	Myrtaceae	Psidium guajava	Guava	evergreen shrub or small tree	Fruit
77.	Myrtaceae	Syzygium cumini	Jamun, naaval	evergreen tree	Fruit, Medicine, Timber
78.	Oxalidaceae	Averrhoa carambola	Star fruit	evergreen tree	Fruit
79.	Phyllanthaceae	Phyllanthus acidus	Star gooseberry, Arai nellikkai (Tamil)	small deciduous tree or shrub	Fruit, Medicine
80.	Phyllanthaceae	Phyllanthus emblica	Amla, Indian gooseberry, Nellikkai(Tamil)	deciduous tree	Fruit, Medicine
81.	Phyllanthaceae	Sauropus androgynus	Vitamin keerai (Tamil)	Shrub	Edible leaves
82.	Poaceae, Sub-Family: Bambusoideae		Clumping Bamboo	fast growing	Timber
83.	Passifloraceae	Passiflora foetida	Wild passion flower	Vine, fast growing	Attracts butterflies, edible fruit
84.	Poaceae, Sub-Family: Chrysopogonaceae	Chrysopogon zizanioides	Vetiver	Grass, fast growing	Mulch, erosion control
85.	Poaceae, Sub-Family: Panicoideae	Cymbopogon spp.	Lemon grass	Grass, fast growing	Roof material, mulch
86.	Rubiaceae	Morinda pubescens	Muddi (Telugu)	Tree, fast growing	Timber, Mulch, Fodder, green manure
87.	Rutaceae	Aegle marmelos	Vilvam (Tamil), Bael (Hindi), Wood apple	deciduous tree	Fruit
88.	Rutaceae	Chloroxylon swietenia	Billu (Telugu)	deciduous tree	Timber (Indian Satinwood)
89.	Rutaceae	Citrus X sinensis	Orange	small evergreen tree	Fruit
90.	Rutaceae	Citrus limetta	Sweet lime, Sathukudi (Tamil), mousambi (Hindi)	small evergreen tree	Fruit
91.	Rutaceae	Citrus limon	Lemon	small evergreen tree	Fruit
92.	Rutaceae	Citrus medica	Narthangkai (Tamil)	small evergreen tree	Fruit (pickled)
93.	Rutaceae	Limonia assidisima	Vilam (Tamil)	deciduous tree
94.	Rutaceae	Murraya koenigii	Curry leaves	small evergreen tree	Edible leaves
95.	Sapindaceae	Cardiospermum corindum	Balloon vine	Vine
96.	Sapindaceae	Dodonaea viscosa	Bandera (Telugu)	Shrub	Fodder, Mulch
97.	Sapindaceae	Sapindus emarginatus	Soap nut, Soap berries, Boondi kottai (Tamil), Koonkukai (Telugu), Ritha (Hindi)	deciduous tree	soap
98.	Sapotaceae	Madhuca indica	Illupai (Tamil)	Tree	Oil, Food, manure, medicine, timber
99.	Sapotaceae	Madhuca longifolia	Illupai (Tamil)	Tree	Oil, edible flower, manure, medicine, Timber
100.	Sapotaceae	Manilkara zapota	Chiku, sapota	evergreen tree	Fruit
101.	Sapotaceae	Mimusops elengi	Magizham (Tamil), spanish cherry	evergreen tree	Fruit
102.	Simaroubaceae	Simarouba glauca	Sorgum (Tamil), Paradise tree	flowering tree	Medicine
103.	Solanaceae	Capsicum spp.	Perennial chilli	Shrub	fruit
104.	Verbenaceae	Gmelina arborea	Kumizh (Tamil), White Teak	Deciduous tree, fast growing	Timber, Wild fruit
105.	Verbenaceae	Lantana spp.	Lantana	Shrub
106.	Verbenaceae	Premna tomentosa	Kolukatta thekku (Tamil), Naruva (Telugu), White Teak	Deciduous tree
107.	Verbenaceae	Tectona grandis	Teak	fast growing	Avenue tree, wind break
108.	Verbenaceae	Vitex negundo	Nochi (Tamil)	Shrub	Green Manure, medicine
109.	Vitaceae	Cissus trifolia aka Cayratia trifolia,	Bush Grape	Evergreen Vine, Ground cover
110.	Vitaceae	Cissus quadrangularis	Pirandai (Tamil)	Evergreen Vine	medicine