World Biggest Banyan Tree:
There are records on various things in the world. Guinness World Records for Largest City, Largest Country, Largest Building etc. Similarly, it holds the record as the world’s largest banyan tree. India has the world’s largest banyan tree. You will be surprised to hear this. The world’s largest banyan tree is located at the Botanical Gardens in Shivpur, Howrah, West Bengal.
This botanical garden has various trees like Sal Seabee, Teak, Juniper, Ashwatta, Mahogany, Clove, Nutmeg. But the main attraction of this park is the giant banyan tree which is more than 250 years old. Many local people have many stories to tell about this ancient banyan tree. Now the banyan tree has spread its kingdom over an area of about 5 acres. This historical tree with hundreds of plants is still alive.
The garden was named Royal Indian Botanical Garden during the region of Queen Victoria. Ater India’s independence, the garden was named Indian Botanical Garden in 1963. In 2009, the park’s name changed again. It has been named Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden to commemorate the birth centenary of India’s famous scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose. Now this garden is under Botanical Survey of India.
A plantation was started in 1789 on 310 acres of land. Kidd’s 40 acres of land was later given to Bishop’s College. It is noteworthy that the college does not exist. Bengal University of Engineering and Science is now on site. It is remarkable that there was no other such extensive park in the world in the eighteenth century. It is noteworthy that before 1840 Billet’s famous Kew Gardens covered only eleven acres.
The Kolkata Botanical Garden has held the title of the world’s largest garden for many years. Earlier in 1780, William Roxburgh succeeded Robert Kidd as plantation director. He also built a botanical garden in Tamil Nadu. However, the subsequent history of the plantation is unique. The garden has around 17,000 trees of 1,400 popular species, rare trees like magnolia, rhododendron and alpine plants add beauty to the garden.
This banyan tree is at least 250 years old. This banyan trees is very wide, with the main truck of the banyan tree being 15.5 meters (or 20 feet) wide. Today the tree is spread over 3.5 acres with a circumference of 486 meters. This tree is 24.5 meters tall.