How to kill a tree

The very first thing you do, is bring religion into it.
That's right.
A few years ago, maybe 3, my friend Gareth noticed a picture of a Hindu god at the base of the tree. He immediately took it and threw it aside, explaining the intention behind it. That is, a future area of worship. He said it could turn out to be a nuisance.
The next day, the picture was back there. Remembering what Gareth had said, I took it to throw it aside. When I did, this is what I saw, a certain kind of ant/termite, presumably meat eating because they were placed behind the picture at the base of the tree along with some chicken bones and sticky mud. (Yuck). Ready made start up tools for an ant hill/ future shrine to the Gods. The things people get suckered into praying to.
So the picture of God eventually disappeared but as it turns out, the termites stayed. And one day about four years later, someone discovered that the inside of the tree was rotting. So the forest department turned up, and cut it down. This tree that's been around all our lives. Just like that.
Just. Like. That.