In Assam, reputed to be India’s agarwood capital , the adaptability of the critically endangered trees to oil-contaminated agricultural plots and its proliferation in home gardens, have raised hopes of conserving the embattled species, amid the absence of a policy to support agar cultivation and industry.
“Growth and adaptation of agar plants in polluted sites means this species has a capacity to tolerate the metallic and hydrocarbon pollution. So, plantation of agarwood in polluted sites is a profitable business for both conservation and restoration of degraded soil,” Hemen Sarma of the department of botany at N N Saikia College, Titabar, Assam, told Mongabay-India.
— Read more at Home gardens and polluted fields are helping conserve this perfume source at Mongabay.
When will we stop tolerating metallic/hydrocarbon pollution?
That I cannot answer. I can only pass on the news that you can still grow some trees despite it, and eventually those trees might make oud.