CALANGUTE: The 200 years old banyan tree which had been uprooted allegedly by a builder at Khobrawaddo, Baga, on the eve of World Environment Day on June 5, was finally replanted by Friday evening after large parts of it were chopped.
Despite pressing three cranes into service on Friday, efforts to replant the uprooted banyan tree near Piety chapel at Khobrawaddo were initially unsuccessful, with locals and Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) members claiming that the builder who had himself brought the cranes was deliberately stalling the replanting of the tree by saying the tree is too heavy and it needed to be trimmed. “The cranes which have been brought here are of 70 tonnes capacity. It’s surprising that they are unable to upright the tree,” residents said.
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But most of the branches were later cut and the tree was made upright by evening.
The banyan tree had fallen down allegedly after a builder engaged a JCB to excavate the mud beneath the roots of the banyan tree so as to forcibly uproot the tree. The incident had occurred on the eve of World Environment Day on June 5. Following this the Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) had lodged a complaint about the uprooting of the tree with various authorities, and following protests by Calangute residents and heritage activist Prajal Sakhardande, there had been a demand to replant the uprooted tree.
