Treasure Hunt

Next Sunday morning,as the busy bylanes of Fort take their weekly sabbatical from the daily bustle,Dr Ashok Kothari of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) will lead a motley bunch of people on a heritage tree walk. The three-hour nature walk,starting from Churchgate and ending at Hornbill House,will be an attempt to discover the green wonders that are for most times camouflaged by the concrete.

Starting from the Cannonball tree near the Churchgate station,winding one’s way through the old Banyan tree near the Bhikha Behram Well and the Chrysophyllum (Star apple) trees near the PWD office,tree lovers can spot the wild almond trees alongside the Desi Badam trees near Oval Maidan. Lacing the streets further down would be the Karanj and mango trees near the High Court building,the Chinese Fan Palm,Pagoda and many other trees in the Mumbai University garden,the old Bakul Tree near Elphinstone College,the century-old Baobab tree in the Museum compound,Kadamb tree on the BNHS premises and Tabebuia rosea near Lion Gate. The highlight of the walk would be getting to savour the rare Pride of Burma tree (also known as the Tree of Heaven) behind the Rajabai Clock Tower as it blooms to reveal its orange and yellow glory. The walk will culminate at the Mahogany tree said to the same one planted by famous explorer David Livingstone when his steamer was anchored in the Mumbai harbour after his discovery of the source of Nile in mid-19th century.

“Even until a few decades ago,every time foreign dignitaries visited the city,they would plant a tree to mark their presence for posterity,” said Kothari,lamenting the death of this practice that has today given way to the BMC planting the ubiquitous Peltophorum trees. Over the past two years,the BNHS has had similar walks from a 350-year-old Baobab tree at Santacruz to the 450-year-old Baobab tree at Bandra and another nature walk at the Jijamata Udyan in Byculla. “This year,we decided to take people around Fort area. The attention is always on heritage buildings here,but the trees,which have survived for almost a century,go largely unnoticed,” said Kothari who will lead the walk along with botanist Dr MR Almeida.

The sexagenarian tree lover had recently sent a letter to Mumbai Mayor,asking her to declare a tree that typifies each ward citing that most areas of Mumbai have after all derived their names from their most prominent trees. Chinchpokli and Chinch Bunder get their names from the tamarind (chinch) trees that once crowded the area,Worli from the banyan (wad) trees,Tardeo from the Palmyra Palm (tad) trees,Byculla from the Indian Laburnum (Bhayakhala),Bhendi Bazaar from lady’s finger (bhendi) and Phanaswadi from the jackfruit (phanas) trees. “Of course,many of these places do not have a trace of trees that originally gave them their name. For instance,the Laburnum Road does not have a single Laburnum tree left,” says Kothari.