Latest news with #Neermaruthu
The Hindu
3 days ago
- General
- The Hindu
Madras Day series on natural history: a survivor at the Marina
At the Marina beach, an old man warming a low wall mounted with a steel grille finds a silent companion in an old Neermaruthu tree. The tree stands in a garden enclosed by this wall. The two seem connected at more than a physical level. They are at comparable life stages. The old man has weariness of time weighing down on him, getting by on a walker, which he has kept next to him, as a setting sun douses him in a gentle light. Bent and wizened not as much by age as vandalism, the tree seems to stretch out towards the ebbing sun. Its buttress has been chewed out, and in the huge hollow, an opportune young Peepal tree grows. The inside of the hollowed-out buttress bears a burnt look, the black inside contrasting with the natural whiteness on the outer surface of the intact buttress and the trunk. T.D. Babu, key member of tree conservation organisation Nizhal and a member of the Chennai District Green Council, points out that this old tree makes a commentary on the landscape. Being an indicator species, it is a trusted chronicler of the landscape's history, now rudely overshadowed by development. This tree stands at a section of the Marina, where a life-size statue of Bharathiyar does too. To its west, the tree finds the office of the Water Resources Department located on the other side of Kamarajar Salai. Cooum river is not too far from the scene. To the north, the tree finds the river entering under the Napier bridge, holding hands with the thick waters of the Buckingham Canal before bounding down the last stretch merrily towards the sea. Babu explains that Neermaruthu (Terminalia Arjuna; called in everyday conversations across India as Arjuna) is a species found along rivers and other waterways, largely along the coast. This tree was not planted and occurred naturally and is therefore an iconic representation of the landscape's intrinsic character. In the olden days, the Cooum and the sea would have interacted way more differently than they do now, and the former's contours would have changed over the centuries. Stands of Neermaruthu trees in the vicinity of the Cooum in a pre-development era could not be ruled out. This lone, old tree is probably the rare one to survive this development. With whatever vim it has, this tree ought to be protected for the living showcase of natural history that it is.
The Hindu
4 days ago
- 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.'
