Post News Network
Biridi, Jan 3: A banyan tree in Puran village haat of Baisi mouza under the block in Jagatsinghpur district has been claimed by residents to be over 1,000 years and the oldest of all existing banyan trees in the country.
Sarpanch Yudhistir Behera said the banyan tree at Puran haat is the oldest among its contemporaries, despite the one at Jadavpur in Kolkata being accorded the status of the oldest banyan tree in the country. He demanded that botanists should make efforts to identify its exact age.
However, locals who visited Jadavpur and saw the tree there, claim that the one at Puran haat to be the oldest and largest of all its contemporaries. The banyan tree, spread over five acres of land, has grown into thousands of aerial roots and trunks following which it
becomes extremely difficult to
identify the root from which the tree has its birth.
The villagers claimed that the tree by now could have spread over six acres of land had its aerial roots not been cut off at regular
intervals. They further said that its actual height has been reduced as many of its trunks broke down
during the super cyclone which hit the district in 1999.
The banyan tree is of great relief for the residents as it provides cover to people during summer and rainy seasons.
