The second International Neem Conference was held in West Germany in December 1983. Over one hundred delegates participated in this conference. The neem tree came into sharp focus in the context of the adverse effects of man-made chemical insecticides. It is a principal source of inexpensive natural repellent and causes no environmental damage.

A noted animal physiologist, Dr. L.M. Schoonhoven, of the agricultural University at Wagenigen in Holland, said that the unique defence system in the neem provided a rare opportunity for insect control. Experiments held in Togo, Africa, had showed that neem leaves, worked into the soil, reduced the population of the plant parasitic nematodes and promoted “spectacular increase” in crop yield.

Now the question arises, what exactly enabled the neem tree to survive, perhaps for millions of years, in a world of greedy insects? And what enabled it to provide protection to the rest of the biological world?

The reason given at the International Neem Conference was that the tree has developed, over the ages, a strong and steady chemical defence system, which enabled it to thwart the heavy selection pressure exerted by insects.

According to this explanation, it is a blind evolutionary process which has produced this unique quality in the neem tree. What man could not achieve after a long period of consistent effort, the tree evolved automatically.

Man is an intelligent being, with will power and consciousness of his own; but in spite of this he is finding great difficulty in producing chemical compounds which will kill only harmful insects, without adversely affecting man and other living creatures.

How strange it is then that the neem tree, which is not only ignorant of other living beings, but also unaware of its own problems, has succeeded in developing this defence system for insect control that causes no damage to man or other living creatures.

This fact shows that a more intelligent and Powerful Being exists in the universe. This unique quality of the neem does nothing to prove that everything has developed as a result of a blind evolutionary process. Rather, it serves as an incontrovertible proof of the existence of God; for only All-Knowing and All-Powerful Being could have invested an unknowing plant with such magic and far-seeing properties. □