India, Sept. 5 -- Dasara's most beloved feature, the illumination, is going overboard and it comes with its own dark side.

Every year, thousands of decorative lights are strung across Mysuru by hammering hooks and nails into roadside trees. When the festival ends, the lights come down but the nails don't.

Worse, more nails are added with every passing year.

If one looks closely at the avenue trees along our main roads, many of them now resemble a cactus plant!

Their trunks are studded with rusting nails from many Dasaras gone by. It is a tragic sight.

It is a fact that nails, staples and tightly wound electrical wires damage a tree's protective bark, exposing it to disease, pests and long-term stress.

The damage extends beyond the b...