NEARING a meranti tree, Mardi halted. He gazed thoughtfully at the soaring tree, reaching 30 meters into the sky. Despite the height, this grandfather took just minutes to scale the tree, moving as deftly as a house lizard. His arms and legs stuck to the tree stem as if they had been glued.

As a true climber, Mardi, soaked in sweat, only took a few seconds to shift from one tree to another. He had now scaled five of them.

But for the 50-year-old,