A sapling planted by Queen Elizabeth-II on the previous premises of Gandhi Hospital at Monda Market, which had withered away years after it was translocated to the hospital’s new premises, has come back to life. The alumni of the Gandhi Medical College (GMC) said the Cycas tree was planted by the Queen three decades ago, but they could not recall the year. According to newspaper reports, the Queen Elizabeth-II visited Hyderabad in November 1983.
The government-run hospital, which was earlier known as King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM), was renamed as Gandhi Hospital in 1958. The Gandhi Hospital and GMC were shifted from Monda Market to the current location in Musheerabad in 2004.
Telangana’s Director of Medical Education (DME), K. Ramesh Reddy, who is an alumnus of the college, said the Cycas tree was planted in the garden beside the hospital’s superintendent chamber at Monda Market.
“It had lush growth. I was serving as an associate professor at Gandhi Hospital when the tree planted by Queen Elizabeth-II was translocated to Musheerabad in 2006. With time, it dried up. But later, I constantly checked the plant and observed that it was reviving,” said Dr. Reddy, who was GMC’s student union president in 1994. Now, it has some six to seven leaves.
It was not just the tree that was translocated from the hospital’s old premises. Around 102-year-old iron staircase too was shifted from the old hospital building to Musheerabad.
