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| Tukai Tekdi in Pune |
Lungs of the city (Wordless Wednesdays)
Roots
The camera has become our constant companion both at home and outside. So whether one is cooking, eating, reading, travelling its easy to capture images to recall and relive memories later. My usual subjects arefriends and family (not surprising), myself (a new addition due to my new toy with a front facing camera!), trees, architecture and so on.
Yet I find that tree roots too have emerged as attention grabbers. Roots are what anchor a tree to the ground, collect water and other nutrients from the soil, at times are modified to breathe/give support as well. I would like to share some of these amazing roots with you.
Enjoy…
These are simply stunning. Tree roots at Angkor Wat. Do they support these ancient structures or do they damage the structure? To me it looks like the former!
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| Photo Credit: Col (Dr) Ram Athavale, Retd |
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| Photo Credit: Col (Dr) Ram Athavale, Retd |
Here is yet another example of roots offering some support… in the form of a bridge! This bridge has been created by living roots of the Ficus tree. Such bridges are seen in North East India. This photo has been sourced from Getty Images
Artist Steve Robin has envisaged and created the following bronze sculpture using inspiration of the roots of the large sycamore tree in the St Paul’s Chapel in New York that was damaged due to debris from the 9/11 World Trade Tower collapse. Read more about it here.
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| ‘Trinity Root’ Patinated Bronze by Steve Tobin. Seen at St Paul’s Chapel, New York |
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| Stunning roots of a huge Cupressus macrocarpa. Seen in San Francisco |
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| Roots of this Ficus at Pondicherry have spread out to form columns. This tree is at Auroville, India. Photo Credit: @puneribaker |
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Rootage of a 200 year old Silk Cotton Tree seen at the Lal Bagh, Bangalore
Photo Credit: @puneribaker
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The vertical Cypress
knees or Pneumatophores of the Taxodium distichum (Bald cypress) jut upwards from the soil. Some theories state they help the tree get oxygen but some trees have thrived even after the cypress knees were removed. Other theories propose that they play the role of supporting the tree.
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| Cypress knees or Pneumatophores of the Taxodium distichum (Bald cypress). This image from South Carolina, USA |
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| Thin delicate aerial roots of the Ficus microcarpa, help distinguish it from other Ficus brethren whose aerial roots may be thicker and coarser. This tree is in Pune, India |
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| This is mostly of learning value to me as I was under the wrong impression that only Ficus species produced aerial roots. This tree is the Metrosideros excelsa (New Zealand Christmas Tree) which belongs to the Myrtaceae family. This tree is from the San Fransisco Botanical Garden |
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| Nebari of my Kamini bonsai! |
If you have enjoyed this, you are sure to like my post about amazing barks …
Take care!
Red and Green (Wordless Wednesdays)
Narcissus (Wordless Wednesdays)
Flowers and Leaves (Wordless Wednesdays)
Wild Guava (Wordless Wednesdays)
Lakdi Pul (Wordless Wednesdays)
The Hills Are Alive
My city is blessed to have many hills right within the city limits. Many have flat land at the top and one can walk for a long distance even upto 10 kms (depending on your route). This is especially amazing because this walk gives a feeling of being ‘above’ the city yet a part of it. In the city yet a feeling of being outside.
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| The hill overlooks Baner and Pashan and one can see the city skyline stretching as far as the eye can see |
Any one who has been to these tekdis (hills) will totally agree with me. I had not visited the Baner Tukai tekdi and eagerly took up an opportunity to visit it.
Like most tekdis in Pune, this one too suffered from deforestation and must have been really bare. It has been the ceaseless and untiring efforts of Dr Garudkar and the Clean Earth Movement that is showing its fruits now. Here is a link to their website.The group has been active since 2006.
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| The almost flat top is perfect for long walks |
The Baneshwar caves are located at the foot of the hill. As one ascends the steps one is immediately struck by the extent of the city’s growth, the spread of concrete jungle almost into the hills. Yet, look up and one can see the green flat top of the tekdi as it meanders away into the distance. Get off the steps and follow the foot trails to enjoy the greenery. The tekdi spans a vast area hence has been ‘divided’ into different sectors named after forests of Maharashtra. The naming is purely for the sake of convenience of the activists working there.
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| These caves are located at the foot of the hill and have a Shiva temple |
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| The ‘map’ of the hill area |
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| The activists have built such tanks to store water for the trees. |
Here
are some highlights of the Baner Tukai tekdi. If you happen to live in
the area, do join the group and help nurture the trees, and keep the
‘lungs’ of the city healthy and green!
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| This Bibba tree was flowering (Semecarpus anacardium) |
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| Sagargota (Caesalpinia bonduc) inflorescence- the tree is armed with thorns on all parts |
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| Shivan (Gmelina arborea) was seen growing at many sites. |
Besides these, many other tree species had been planted and seemed to be pretty healthy. Some which I identified were several Ficus species, Neem, Arjun, Laxmi Taru (Simarouba glauca), varieties of Bauhinia, Prajakta, Awala, Waval.
The flowers that grabbed all our attention despite their small size (and by small I mean half a finger nail) were the seasonal herbs. They were in full bloom and created yellow and purple carpets on the hill side, almost reminiscent of the Kas Pathar. We saw Hyptis suaveolens (with Tulsi-like-fragrant leaves), Sida species, Trichodesma sp, Sopubia sp, Alysicarpus sp, Stryka sp, Sonchus sp and many many more that we could not identify. There were some lichens too!
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| Yellow Tribulus terrestris |
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| A purple-pink carpet of Cyanotis species |
The hills in Pune are at their full glory right now. Go enjoy!
Splatter (Wordless Wednesdays)
What do the figures indicate?
Pune is fortunate to have two rivers, the Mula and the Mutha. Yet the present condition of these rivers shows Punekars do not care at all for their natural wealth.
An annual debate before Ganeshutsav has almost become a ritual as environment activists and local authorities urge people to immerse their Ganesh idols in specially built ‘houd’ and not in the river. Traditionally, the idol is supposed to be made out of ‘Shadu’ a kind of river mud which means the idols dissolves easily in water once immersed. There are umpteen workshops to help people make their own idol which can be easily immersed at home.
Yet many idols continue to be made with Plaster of Paris. These often do not dissolve in water and the idol that we have worshiped for 10 days suddenly becomes a ‘problem’. Here is a stark article in The Alternative about fate of Ganesha idols.
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| The river becomes almost a trickle as water and is often highly polluted |
This year we reached the river early to immerse our idol. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire area absolutely clean. I could see the bottom of the ‘houd’ and I was very happy to immerse our idol in its clean water.
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| It was possible to see the bottom of the ‘houd’ |
Yet an article in Maharashtra Times dated 10 Sep 2014 was very disheartening. It has published data which indicates that the number of idols immersed in the river in the Sep 2014 Ganeshutsav has actually increased y/y and the number of idols immersed in the ‘houd’ has reduced y/y. The article does not mention number of idols immersed at home nor the total number of idols in the city.
However if one considers only the figures available in the article then there seems to be shift towards immersing the Ganesha idol in the river, tanks, lakes and wells.
Above figures for Sep 2014 repeated below with y/y figures in brackets. The figures in red are higher y/y:
Ghat, Nadipatra: 1 lakh 37 thousand 730 (1 lakh 11 thousand 24)
Houd: 1 lakh 59 thousand 456 (1 lakh 20 thousand 365)
Tanks: 45118 (29095)
Canals: 38323 (56120)
Talav: 509 (359)
Wells: 1096 (805)
Why? Why?
Lets hope the situation improves in 2015.