In rural India, one is still likely to often find a banyan tree cheek by jowl with a pond. Together, they would provide shade and a setting for people as well as birds to flock together. Impressed with this vignette of rural living, Hariprasad Sambadevan, a software engineer, has sought to recreate it in his corner of the world, in Sholinganallur.
“In a village, a banyan tree by the side of a waterbody or a waterway is a common sight,” Hariprasad explains the rationale behind planting a banyan sapling and secured it with mesh-fencing on TNHB Main Road in Sholinganallur. The road abuts a rainwater-filled boggy patch along the Buckingham Canal, a waterway. This boggy patch attracts many water birds, and with greenery of this kind being added to TNHB Main Road, woodland birds may also feel drawn to the space. There are many bird species that like to peck at banyan fruits, which are a form of fig.
For Downtown. A resident of TNHB Main Road in Sholinganallur has planted a banyan sapling and secured it with mesh-fencing, on the road which abuts a rainwater-filled boggy patch along the Buckingham Canal. Photo: Prince Frederick
“When I tried to source a banyan sapling from nurseries in Chennai, the exercise proved fruitless. I had to get a friend to send a banyan sapling from Kolkatta,” says Hariprasad, who is deeply committed to green living, something his house bears testimony to. Located on the other side of TNHB Main Road and bang opposite the patch where the banyan sapling now stands, open spaces within his compound are dotted with trees.
“Believe me, it will take just three years to thoroughly green the entire planet,” asserts Hariprasad. He has proof: “The trees at my house were planted just two to three years ago, and if such greenery can be achieved in such a short time, it can be done anywhere else.”
A design tweak
Right along its compound wall, a house at the junction of Beach Road and Nedunchezian Street in Kalakshetra Colony in Besant Nagar, underlines a green philosophy that is practised inside. The design of the compound wall has undergone an unusual tweak to ensure the survival of an old tree. When Shanta Guhan wanted to restructure the old house and build it anew, for the sake of greater comfort and convenience, she told her architects that the tree should be saved at any cost.
At a house at the junction of Beach Road and Nedunchezian Street in Kalakshetra Coony in Besant Nagar, the design of the compound wall has been tweaked to ensure the survival of a grown tree. Photo: Prince Frederick
“As the restructuring of the house led to the newly built-area occupying a bit of what was earlier open space, and also resulting in the loss of some greenery, I was extremely particular that this tree was saved,” says Shanta.
Her house makes many green statements, especially the carefully-chosen plants in the open spaces, and this tree, which actually is an “outsider” that is made to feel at home inside, makes the most powerful of those statements.
