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The Hindu
3 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
Endangered South American tree ‘staying' on a college campus in Chennai
The surest way to lose something valuable is to persist in ignorance about its value. Viewed from an ecological viewpoint, Roughbark lignum-vitae (Guaiacum officinale) might not belong to these parts. But if one accorded natural history the place it deserves but is often denied, sometimes wilfully, this Roughbark lignum-vitae needs to be made welcome, felt at home in the handful of earth in Chennai it has claimed as its own. Exotic trees have become naturalised in their adopted landscapes and are readily identified. The Roughbark lignum-vitae has not achieved that level of familiarity in Chennai; there is just a scattering of them in the city. And this clutch needs to be zealously guarded as this tree is faced with dwindling numbers everywhere. It is rare not just in Chennai, but even in lands where it is considered native. According to IUCN, the tree is endangered, exploitation of the tree for its wood (said to have been the densest in the world) having reached the tipping point. 'A small evergreen tree native to South America, it is reported to have been introduced to our parts in the 16th century. It 'adoption' could have been the result of the ornamental value it brought to a landscape: it puts out striking bluish purple flowers that attract butterflies and has bright yellow-orange fruits. In Tamil, it is called seemai vairamaram,' says T.D. Babu, a member of the Chennai District Green Committee and a key member of tree conservation organisation Nizhal. Babu underlines its special features — 'considered densest and water-proof, this tree's has been used in ship building. Its resin and bark are said to have medicinal properties. These factors led to its commercial exploitation and dwindling numbers.' In light of the threat of extinction faced by this tree, one would expect more care to be given to the clutch of Roughbark lignum-vitae trees found in Chennai. One of them has the Queen Mary's College Campus for an address. Babu notes that the base of the tree has suffered damage, not natural but human-inflicted in the past. It also displays 'wounds' further up its gnarled frame — an amputated branch. Babu wants the state of the tree's precincts to reflect its preciousness. Currently, the earth it stands in is overrun with weeds. This is the status report about this tree at Queen Mary's College campus as on August 8, 2025. Besides, on that day, this Roughbark lignum-vitae was wearing a nameboard not meant for it; one erroneously identifying it as a Ficus benghalensis moraceae (banyan tree). Babu explains why this tree at Queen Mary's College should be placed within an impregnable hedge of protection. 'In Chennai we lost a huge Roughbark lignum-vitae tree in a private property, a perfume factory in Adyar. Another massive tree on Swamy Sivananda Salai . We are now left with this one near the canteen at Queen Marys College campus; another inside Rostrevor Gardens, a railways quarters Anna salai; one more large tree inside Kalaingnar Poonga on Radhakrishnan Salai. There is a young Roughbark lignum-vitae each at Kalakshethra campus in Thiruvanmiyur and Lady Willington Institute of Advanced Study in Education at Kamarajar Sala. Outside Chennai, twin Roughbark lignum-vitae trees are found on the campus of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University in Coimbatore.'
The Hindu
07-08-2025
- The Hindu
Madras Day series: two Neermaruthu trees at MLAs Hostel in Chennai decode Chepauk's arboreal past
What the reader sees in these pictures is affected by perspective distortion, the inevitable result of scrunching a three-dimensional reality into a flat, two-dimensional visual representation. The two trees are not being represented as they truly are, their trunks far more massive in reality than they appear in those frames. When they have grown to maturity and exploited their full potential, Neermaruthu trees (Terminalia arjuna) stand tall and robust, exuding a presence comparable to celluloid superstars known to fill a screen. With its imposing stature, massive, smooth white trunk and the bough making for a dense canopy and the subsidiary branches simulating a skyward-bound cracker returning to terra firma in a shower of colour and light, a Neermaruthu is sure to force a passerby to take notice of it. These two trees in the images achieve that effect, bringing out the paparazzi in most people. These Arjuna trees (as Neermaruthu trees are known outside Tamil Nadu) have the same door number as the MLAs Hostel in Chepauk, accessible via Sivananda Salai as well as Wallajah Salai. They are domiciled in a park at the Hostel. If one chose to reach it via the former road, they would understand this species' essential character in a practical, unambiguous manner. In times when landscapes were left to themselves, Neermaruthu trees thrived along waterways and riverine systems, coastal and inland. They are identified with coastal wetlands. Sivananda Salai is a jogging partner for the Cooum river in Chepauk; they run alongside each other. The Cooum as known to us now might be icky, but there is a recorded past when it did flow more swiftly with clearer waters. 'These twin Neermaruthu trees, as also one on the opposite side, at the MLAs Hostel premises occurred naturally, and were not planted. And they serve as an indicator species, decoding the arboreal past of the landscape,' says T.D. Babu, member of Chennai District Green Committee and a key member of tree conservation organisation Nizhal. 'They presence along waterways is the result of the flowing waters dispersing the seeds. The seed is dispersed through water as the fruit is woody and float and get accumulated along the banks and starts germinating.' Further illustrating the connection between Neermaruthu trees and riverine systems, he calls up the name of a town found on the banks of a Cauvery tributary in Thanjavur. 'Thiruvidaimarudur, a town in Thanjavur district is named after Neermaruthu as it is overrun with these trees,' says Babu, adding that this town's location on the banks of Virasolanar, a tributary of Cauvery, contributes in no small measure to the species' proliferation. 'Similarly, along the banks of Cauvery in Ogenakallu, one can only see huge-sized Neermaruthu trees.' Back to the twin trees Babu calls the two trees at the MLAs hostel twin trees. And, they sure come across as identical twins, if you ignore the fact that one has a lop-sided look, its branches on one side restrained by the presence of an artificial structure. Babu says before this structure (which is in fact a wall made of metal sheet that is part of a badminton stadium) came up, this tree also had free-flowing branches, and together they twinned to the hilt. Neemaruthu trees have as much utilitarian value as aesthetic value. Babu notes that the oval shaped leaves of the Neermaruthu is staple diet of the South Indian small tussore (Antheraea phapia), a moth providing tussar silk. Looking at the twin trees at the MLA's Hostel, one notices exfoliation, the barks that are peeling off seemingly inviting one to make us of them. Says Babu, 'Vagbatta emphasised the role of Neermaruth barks in preparation of Ayurvedic medicine for heart health.'
