Envis Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India

Printed Date: Friday, March 29, 2024

Latest News

Archive

Rare and endangered trees spotted in city (Source: The Hindu 25-02-2019)

 

 

Tree Walk finds them on the Thycaud guest house premises

        Tree Walk-Thiruvananthapuram, a collective of citizens which has been documenting tree diversity, spotted the rare and endangered Agar wood tree, listed in Appendix II of the IUCN list of potentially threatened species, in the Government Guest House premises. Due to overexploitation for the fragrant oodh perfume which is extracted from the wood and habitat loss, this tree is threatened in its natural habitat. The members of the Tree Walk were amazed with the rare species of trees in and around the Thycaud Guest house on Sunday. The walk started with details about the Honey tree or Mahua found inside the NORKA campus. The only one of its kind in the city, this tree is found more in the forests of Central and North India. The move to cut the biggest of the four trees found in the campus was highlighted by the group to the Union Minister of State for Tourism, K. J. Alphons who accidentally met the Tree Walk members there.

 

                 The group also listed another tree, the Clammy Cherry with fruits which is also not very common in urban environments. The presence of the ancient Podocarpus tree, endemic to the ancient super continent of Gondwana in the campus of the Guest house was a new discovery as far as the city’s flora is concerned. The distribution of this tree in Africa, Asia, Central and South America was explained by Namitha,L, who is doing her doctoral work in the Department of Botany, University of Kerala. Green lung

 

                The adjoining KITTS campus also has many species that make it imperative that this whole area be made into a Green lung. The big size of trees like the Cananga tree, Mahogany and Mango tree in the campus suggests the long history of the Residency area. Anitha S. of Tree Walk said they will draw the attention of the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan and Minister for Tourism, Kadakampally Surendran about the need to protect this green lung and preserve the rare trees. The walk was led by S. Santhi, Asha Kampurath, Abraham, Renu Henry, Muraleemohan and Anitha. A team of students from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram were also part of the group.