150-year-old banyan trees get new lease of life

Aurangabad: The banyan trees cut during the widening of the stretch from Mahanubhav Ashram to Link Road on Paithan Road have got a new lease of life.
Members of a non-governmental organization called WE (We for environment) have replanted the branches. They have started bearing shoots.
WE member Preeti Shah got the idea of carrying out stump re-plantation from an environmental group in Pune.
The public works department (PWD) had cut around 500 trees in May and June to widen the road. Shah had picked four banyan branches and planted them in her farm. The branches started sprouting leaves in two weeks.
Four months on, three of the four have survived and are growing at a good rate, Shah said.
Following Shah’s example, the rest of the group also tried the experiment. They picked twenty branches and planted them at SRPF ground.
WE group member Kamal Pahade informs that 12 of them have survived and are sprouting shoots.
Industrialist Sushil Pipada who had planted seven stumps in his factory premises in Chikalthana. All seven of the banyan branches are growing well.
Stump plantation works not only with banyan trees but also with all phycus trees like pipal and fig, Shah says. He added that the trees that were saved through this process were around 100-150 years old.
The group hopes that the economic alternative of tree translocation is preferred when building new infrastructure demands deforestation.
Meghna Badjate of WE said that if the group receives support from the divisional commissionerate, industry associations like Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA) and Massia, trees that are currently being cut for the Aurangabad-Jalgaon Roads widening could be replanted on Sarola forest area. Citizens can also take part by volunteering, Badjate appealed.