Gigantic banyan tree crashes

Gigantic banyan tree crashes
Bangalore, DH News Service:
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 12:00 [IST]

Friday came as a big shock for Bangalore’s green brigade, when a gigantic banyan tree, considered to be around 400-year-old, came crashing down at Sir M Vishveshvaraya Banyan Tree Park in Basaveshwaranagar.


The banyan tree had come up in a property that belonged to the ancestors of one Mutthappa who had donated the entire land for the tree. It was spread across an acre of land, which made the park everyone’s favourite destination. To watch the expansive tree everyday many people used to visit the place while many winged flocks had nested there.

On the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, the tree came crashing down with a great roar. It was uprooted and its trunk was split into many parts.

On Friday morning the news about the death of the old banyan tree spread like wildfire among the tree lovers of the city who made a bee-line to see the remains of the grand old tree.

A retired conservator of forest said, this was one of the oldest trees in Bangalore. It was as old as the Dodda Alada Mara (Big banyan tree), which too is around 400-year-old. He blamed the BBMP for not taking care of the tree properly and the ariel road development.