Most people come to a forest looking for life. At BABLI, we have spent the last 36 years looking at decay .... In the dry, high-heat plains of Birbhum, the sun is a relentless force. It doesn’t just provide light; it incinerates. For a tree in this "Lal Mati" (Red Soil) country, the sun acts as an external oven, baking the outer bark into a brittle, suffocating "straitjacket." In the lush, humid tropics, rain rots this bark away. But here in the Rarh, without that moisture, t