In a first for Punjab, site of ‘300-year-old’ banyan tree to get biodiversity heritage tag

The site has flourishing flora and fauna including colony of peacocks, owls, several species of reptiles such as snakes, monitor lizards, garden lizards, insects, arthropods, millipedes, nematodes and epiphytes, bryophytes, fungi, algae and lichens.

Kaya Kalap Vriksha Punjab, Fatehgarh Sahib, Dr Amita Prasad,, biodiversity heritage, Punjab Biodiversity Board (PBB), Punjab news, indian Express news

The land measuring 3.5 acres on which the tree stands, is privately owned by multiple individuals. (Express Photo)

SPREAD ACROSS an area of 3.5 acres in Cholti Kheri village of Fatehgarh Sahib, the site of a ‘30-decade-old’ banyan tree — popularly known as ‘Kaya Kalap Vriksha’ — is set to be declared the first biodiversity heritage site in Punjab. Dr Amita Prasad, additional secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, along with district administration officials, had visited the site recently.

On Monday, Prasad in a statement said the Punjab Biodiversity Board (PBB) had initiated the process to get the biodiversity heritage tag for the site under section 37 of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and rule 7 of Punjab Biodiversity Rules, 2016. Interestingly, the land measuring 3.5 acres on which the tree stands, is privately owned by multiple individuals. The site is being conserved and managed with the cooperation of the land owners.

The site has flourishing flora and fauna including colony of peacocks, owls, several species of reptiles such as snakes, monitor lizards, garden lizards, insects, arthropods, millipedes, nematodes and epiphytes, bryophytes, fungi, algae and lichens. Prasad added that the village panchayat had passed a resolution promising its conservation.

A documentary on the site was recently filmed by a Paris-based production house in coordination with the state biodiversity board under a series titled ‘Tree Stories: Most Remarkable Trees of the World’. Dr Amandeep Bansal, additional deputy commissioner Fatehgarh Sahib said the local administration will fully cooperate to upkeep the health of the great Banyan Tree.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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