DRAFTED BY SHUBHAM SHARMA
- The Great Banyan is a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) located in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur, Howrah, near Kolkata, India.
- This tree is believed to be more than 250 years old.
- It covers an area of about 14500 square meters or 3.5 acres making it the widest tree in the world.
- The height of the tree is around 79 feet.
- This tree has approximately 3600 aerial roots and it looks like a mini forest from distance.
- It survived three great cyclones in 1864, 1867, and 2020 when some of its main branches were broken.
- The tree survives without its main trunk, which decayed and had to be removed in 1925 which was around 51 feet (15.7 meters) wide.
- The tree lost several prop roots when Cyclone Amphan passed through West Bengal on 20 May, 2020.
- It was recorded to be the largest tree specimen in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1989.
- It is the home of 80 different species of birds.
ABOUT BANYAN TREE
Banyan (Ficus benghalensis), commonly known as Indian banyan or banyan fig, is a peculiarly shaped mulberry (Moraceae) tree native to the Indian subcontinent. The banyan can grow up to 30 meters (100 feet) tall and spread forever. Aerial roots that sprout from the tree’s branches fall and take root in the earth, eventually growing into new trunks. As a result of the tangle of roots and trunks, one tree may eventually take on the appearance of a dense thicket. Thimmamma Marrimanu, who lives in Andhra Pradesh, India, is said to have the world’s largest canopy of any tree. The banyan tree is India’s national tree.
