Driving past the deciduous jungles with stout looking trees beyond Solan towards Chail, a traveller is pleasantly surprised on entering the periphery of Chail. Here, a reluctant greenery of the lower slopes suddenly burst into dense and dark-green terrain, as the deodar trees rise high and spread all along the slopes.
The superb greenery continues along the hills for most of the way towards Shimla as one drives through Kufri and Mashobra. Beyond Mashobra, the slopes get steeper but the unrelenting greenery only gets thicker, forming one of the densest deodar forests that you can see anywhere in India.
The town of Shimla too has its share of deodars. As you move from west to east along the Mall Road, the urban structures slowly make way to Deodars. There are many places in Shimla where you can walk in silence among Deodars.
Naturally, green cover is always a victim of growing pressures of tourism and development. The Government of Himachal is now trying to plant more deodars within Shimla, and running an afforestation drive across Himachal. I hope they succeed in making Shimla greener.
Read more on planting deodar saplings in Shimla at http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-106332.html