Fresh bid to revive historic banyan tree

NAGPUR: The city-based environment protection NGO Srushti Paryavaran Mandal on Sunday renewed efforts to revive the 200-year-old historic banyan tree at the Ambazari T-point. TOI in May last year had first reported how women on 'Vat Savitri' day will be deprived of offering prayers to the banyan as it was dead. Following that, a section of NGOs including Srushti had made efforts to revive the tree.

The Sunday's exercise was part of that effort. Around 40 volunteers of Srushti headed by Swanand Soni and Sanjay Deshpande reached Ambazari T-point and began making fresh efforts.

"The banyan is among the listed trees of the city. Today's efforts were part of the earlier plan which included landscaping and fencing the area around the tree. Earlier too, we had done anti-fungal treatment as per prescription of experts," Soni told TOI.

On Sunday, the volunteers planted 6-foot-tall, 40 grafted banyan trees around the dead tree. "We tied the banyan sprouts at five to six places on banyan branches which still had some life. These sprouts will be brought down to the soil with the help of PVC pipes," Deshpande said.

Deshpande, Soni and others were confident the huge banyan will survive. "The efforts will take a year to bear fruit. It will be perhaps first such experiment anywhere," they said.

"The drive will not be limited to reviving the dead banyan. We will push with the NMC to make the Ambazari road a bargad (banyan) street by planting more such trees. We have the trees and the NMC should help us by providing tree guards," Deshpande said.

The efforts to revive the dead banyan date back to 2006 when nature lover Shrikant Deshpande first noticed the tree was dying. Till May 2009, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) did nothing. Instead of making positive efforts, the corporation started dumping garbage around it, virtually killing what was left of the tree.

"The banyan, a symbol of healthy ecosystem, was left to die. It was only after I complained that the garbage container was removed," claimed Seema Sahu, a nature lover.