Public cheer as leaves grow in relocated century-old banyan tree

CHENGALPATTU: In what could be described as a celebration of a new beginning, a century-old banyan tree that was chopped off as part of a road widening project and later transplanted at another location, sprouted new leaves and brought cheer to environmental activists and residents of Sunambedu.

Activists and school students celebrated the event by distributing sweets for the tree’s ‘birthday’. Over the past few months, road widening work is in full swing at Sunambedu and East Coast Road areas. Owing to this, several trees were chopped off without any notice to make way for the infrastructural development.

However, when a century-old banyan tree was felled without prior permission, ‘Pasumai Thaayagam’, an NGO working towards nature conservation staged a protest demanding the replanting of the tree in another location. Following this, the tree was brought and planted at the Sunambedu Government School premises.

The activists have been lovingly watering the tree over the past three months and keeping their fingers crossed for it to get a new lease on life. In a moment that brought a lot of joy to the activists and school children, the tree sprouted new leaves recently, which was a cause for celebration. Members of ‘Pasumai Thaayagam’ on Wednesday distributed sweets to the students and teachers in the school and read a poem to make the tree’s birthday a memorable one. They also spoke about methods to conserve nature and prevent deforestation for the sake of development and raised awareness among students.