As part of its efforts to preserve the rich cultural heritage of Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi government is going to set up a Heritage Tree Garden in Prayagraj.
In the garden to be set up in Soraon tehsil, a plant, twig or branch propagated from a heritage tree will be mandatorily planted. The remaining plants will be species of local importance, informed officials of the state horticulture department.
Approximately six to eight hectares of land will be needed for this initiative to be undertaken as part of the Vriksharopan Jan Abhiyan-2024, they added.
The heritage tree garden in Prayagraj will be part of 11 such gardens being set up across UP in different districts to raise awareness about the identified heritage trees among the state’s residents. These gardens will be created in Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Bareilly, Mathura, Sitapur, Chitrakoot and Mirzapur besides Prayagraj.
In all, 948 heritage trees including Prayagraj’s Akshayvat have already been identified across the state through the Heritage Tree Adoption Scheme.
Divisional forest officer of Prayagraj, Arvind Kumar said that Prayagj range has the highest number of heritage trees in this list numbering 21. After this, Pratappur Range has 14 and Koraon Range has 7 heritage trees. Out of these 53 heritage trees, 42 are on public land, 6 on community land and 4 on defence land, he added.
The oldest tree in the list of heritage trees in the region is Parijat or Kalpataru located near Ulta Qila in Jhunsi, whose age is 700 years. After this, the age of Kalpataru present inside Chandra Shekhar Azad Park is 400 years. Akshayvat located inside the Allahabad fort on the banks of Yamuna has also been included in this heritage list, whose age is 300 years, the DFO said.
{{/usCountry}}The oldest tree in the list of heritage trees in the region is Parijat or Kalpataru located near Ulta Qila in Jhunsi, whose age is 700 years. After this, the age of Kalpataru present inside Chandra Shekhar Azad Park is 400 years. Akshayvat located inside the Allahabad fort on the banks of Yamuna has also been included in this heritage list, whose age is 300 years, the DFO said.
{{/usCountry}}The Heritage Tree Garden in trans-Ganga area of Soraon is being constructed near Padila Mahadev. This garden is being prepared in about six hectares of land. Five species of trees to be preserved in the garden include Banyan, Peepal, Pakkad, Gular and Kusum.
Around 750 saplings of these heritage trees will be planted in the garden this month. For this, pits have been dug at the designated places and gypsum and manure has been put in them, the official said.