Strong and resilient : Bagh-e-Jinnah’s 150-year-old tree lives on
Lahore’s famous Bagh e Jinnah is home to several old trees, with many of them existing for several decades. Authorities overseeing the gardens, however, have no records of the origin of these trees or who planted them.
According to the gardeners who are responsible for looking after the trees, each year, an old tree falls due to rain and gusty winds. Others, however, have stood the test of time and still do not show any sign of weakness.
Out of many, a banyan tree stands out, which is estimated to be about 150 years old and is one of the tallest trees in the garden. The tree is not only strong but it its shoots have sprawled as far as 60 to 70 feet. The strangest thing about the tree is that it has one trunk, but its branches are of two different species.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, a gardener named Yaseen Alam, who has been working at Bagh e Jinnah for the past 18 years, said that half of the branches belong to the banyan tree, while the remaining half are Karnikar, commonly known as kanaka champa (Pterospermum acerifolium).
“I don’t know how and when did the karnikar tree grow, but now these two trees stand as one, just like two bodies and one soul,” Yaseen said. “There is no record available about the people who had grown palm, banyan, and various other types of trees in Bagh e Jinnah.”
Established in 1885 and located on Mall Road, Lahore, Bagh e Jinnah was built on a 141-acre area. It is considered Asia’s third-biggest botanical garden. Previously known as Lawrence Gardens after John Lawrence, who served as the viceroy of India from 1864-1869. The place also had his statue, which was later moved to Foyle and Londonderry College in Northern Ireland.
The garden has nearly 150 different kinds of trees, 140 kinds of bushes, 50 types of vines, 100 different types of green plants, and 30 species of unidirectional trees. Moreover, the gardens also boast more than a thousand types of seasonal flowers which are cultivated on an annual basis. What is more, Bagh e Jinnah is included among the world’s best gardens, which includes three nurseries and four manmade mountains.
Bagh e Jinnah’s Project Director Akhtar Mehmood said that the Indian Agri-Horticulture Society had built a small garden back in 1862 which was further expanded and developed by 1869. A zoological garden and a zoo were built inside the garden in 1872, while one portion of the garden was given to the agriculture and gardening department.
“It was King Edward Medical College’s second principal Professor T E Burton Brown who decided to expand the garden after taking charge as the secretary of the Agri-Horticulture Society in 1861,” he said. “Professor Brown procured a 176-acre land from the landlords of Muzang against a payment of Rs234. He named it the Agri-Horticulture Garden,” Akhtar Mehmood said.
Akhtar Mehmood added that Banyan tree had expanded and took over a lot of space because of which a nameplate could not be installed.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 26th, 2020.