Coimbatore : While a 70-year-old Banyan Tree lent on a Police Outpost inside the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) due to heavy winds, a private school in Kalapatti, that is named after the tree opened up their campus to give it a lease of life.
Coimbatore : While a 70-year-old Banyan Tree lent on a Police Outpost inside the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) due to heavy winds, a private school in Kalapatti, that is named after the tree opened up their campus to give it a lease of life.
The Aalam Montessori Home School in Kalapatti is now the new home for the tree and would decorate the front of the school.
According to K. Syed from Osai, he received information about the tree on Sunday, when the tree gave in to heavy winds and starting falling slowly. “If we had not removed the tree, it could have had a disastrous fall creating a big chaos inside the CMCH campus. It could have caused huge inconvenience for the patients there,” he said.
Though the idea was to transplant the tree, not many came forward to give land as they feared that a Banyan tree could affect constructions nearby.
This is when Syed received a call from the Aalam Montessori Home School which came forward to host the tree. Once things were confirmed, the branches of the trees were pruned and the transplantation works began.
It took 16 hours, the convergence various Government departments and institutions including CMCH, Police, Revenue, Electricity, Water Board and earth movers to transplant the tree from CMCH to the school, which is located almost 15 kms away.
While the entire process has given huge relief for those involved, the tree’s new home is another happy place as it is well received. An 11-feet pit was dug in to host the tree and it was filled with water. Once the tree was transplanted around early morning on Monday, special poojas were also conducted to welcome the tree.
“Being an alternative school, conservation is an important area that we work on. The very facts that the Aalam tree has the potential to live for 1000 years and that it sustains myriad life forms under its canopy are reasons enough to give it a new lease of life,” said S. Boopathy, Correspondent of the school.
He further added that they felt blessed to have gotten an opportunity to host the tree in their campus, which they feel would be a jewel among many Aalam saplings in their campus.
“We can see the future where children would grow under the tree, which is an integral part of our culture. Hope this effort inspires many to take up conservation in a big way and that no tree will face the axe for want of space,” he told the Simplicity.
After transplanted, the tree was given proper nurture to help it get rooted in the new area. Syed said it would take atleast 30 days for the roots to hold firm in the new soil. “Banyan tree can easily grow in any environment,” he said.
Notably, Syed was also involved in another tree transplantation within the campus of Ammarun Foundry in Vilankurichi on the same day.