The other banyan trees of Chennai

Did you know about the other iconic banyan tree of Chennai? The one at Theosophical Society in Adyar is the most famous and oldest.

Around Nemeli, East Coast Road resembles one of those insanely elevated runways for models, with the landscape on both sides descending into an “abyss”. Motorists that get their wheels to cling to the shoulder of the road would be treated to rare visuals. On the landward side, the Great Salt Lake would play peek-a-boo with them. On the seaward side, casuarina groves would roll away. At one point, a banyan tree would play the part of the prima donna and the casuarina trees would retreat to the backdrop and form a supportive choral ensemble. The setting is a local body-run cremation ground where burials are also carried out. The banyan tree is the first to greet visitors to the cremation ground, if you do not count the other trees, most visibly a neem tree and a yellow bells (tecoma stans), that are entangled in it.

The banyan tree also locks branches with another banyan tree, a smaller one, that is found on the other side of the approach road to the cremation ground. There is a flight of stairs leading up to the cremation platform. The inside of the roof (which has been designed in the manner of an A-frame gable roof) has accumulated considerable soot suggesting the facility is being well-used. According to a statement painted into one of the walls that enclothe the plinth section, this cremation facility at Nemeli, which comes under the Thiruporur Panchayat Union, had been renewed under Anna Marumalarchi Thittam. A huge water storage facility stands next to the banyan. The banyan tree is the frontispiece of the cremation ground and it is a landmark of its own. As banyan signifies continuity, its presence at the cremation ground provides a sense of hope and continuity.

For long-time habitues of Andhra Club on Vijayaraghava Road, the scenery right outside the centre likely has a disturbing starkness to it now.

Part of this landscape for decades, a banyan tree disappeared from the scene in August 2022, its last gasp suppressed by the roar of JCB machines.

The tree was obstructing the progress of the stormwater drain work, and a plan to get the emerging drain to skirt around the tree coming unstuck, the giant had to go.

This episode begged a question, and it still does: Can banyan trees be saved by not having them planted on roads, even broad roads? As extensive development and redevelopment usually arrive as an afterthought, preceding the advent of the road they have to grace (much like the axiom about putting the cart before the horse), banyan trees on a road are always going to have the claw of a demolition machine hanging over it. Should banyan trees be reserved for expansive spaces that are certain to be untouched by development?

East Coast Road