(Continued from last fortnight)

The Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah.

Banyan tree
(Ficus benghalensis)

The Great Banyan Tree in the Indian Botanical Gardens, Kolkata, reported to be 200-250 years of age, was struck by lightning in 1925.The middle of the tree was excised to keep the remainder healthy. Long before this tragedy, the tree was damaged in 1884 and 1886 by cyclones. Yet, it looks like a forest rather than an individual tree. The area covered by the tree is 1.5 hectare or 3.7 acres. At present it has 3,300 aerial roots reaching down to the ground to support it. The present circumference is one kilometre. Fortunately the tree has a lot of open space around it and can grow larger with ease, particularly if it is well cared for.

The Banyan tree at the Theosophical Society in Adyar is considered to be over 450 years old. Its main trunk was damaged by a cloudburst in the 1980s. This tree has had several meetings held beneath it. Dr Annie Besant used to address gatherings of over a thousand people and J. Krishnamurthi too used to give talks there as well as meditate. Besant also presided over a marriage of the Principal of the Theosophical College, Madanapalle, beneath the tree.

In the last few decades, the tree’s growth has been restricted due to the Pavlova theatre being built near it on one side, other trees growing close to it and weeds and undergrowth not cleared. The tree has spread to about 42,000 square feet and its canopy’s circumference is just 753 feet.

The world record for a Banyan tree belongs to a tree in Anantapur District, 35 kilometres from Kadri. Named Themmamma mari manu, it covers 2.1 hectare or 5.18 acre and has 1100 prop roots. The Forest Department spent over Rs. 7 lakh to develop a protected environmental complex unit which hosts an aviary and is enriched by beautiful landscaping.

550 years ago, Themmamma predicted that the tree would regenerate and develop into a massive tree that would attract world-wide attention.

When the main trunk of the Banyan is damaged due to aging or disease or lightning or storm as in the case of the tree at Adyar or that at Kolkata, lts clonal form grows and grows, if not restricted for space. The Kolkata tree is fortunate that plenty of space is still available around it. The saying ‘The King is dead, Long live the King’ is quite apt for the Banyan tree.

Budhi, Peepul or Bo tree
(Ficus religiosa)

Bo tree or Peepul tree belongs to the same family as Banyan or the fig tree and the famous strangler fig.

The Peepul tree grows in lime-rich conditions and its seedlings grow in crevices in walls and buildings. It is no wonder the Senate House was a victim of this tree. This is a characteristic of the Ficus genera, which has 16 species listed in India. The strangler fig can often be seen encircling a Palmyra tree in and around Chennai and several other parts of India. But in the Western Ghats it is even more virulent, strangling big trees in the forests.

The Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia were abandoned for several centuries and when they were rediscovered, not long ago, several temples were fully engulfed mostly by the Ficus species and to this day the temples are preserved in this amazing style.

The Buddhist shrine in Adyar has the scion of the Bodh Gaya tree. It was planted in December 1950 by C. Jinarajadasa, the then President of the Theosophical Society. A Bo tree, as it is commonly called in Sri Lanka, was sent there with Mahinda, the son of Emperor Asoka, some 2300 years ago. It was planted at Anuradhapura. Worship at the Bo tree has continued unbroken for all these years and it is considered the oldest historically documented tree in the world’s. The Bo tree is considered sacred by Hindus and Jains as well.

(Concluded)