SURVIVAL CHALLENGES IN INDIA’S URBANISING TRANSFORMATION: GRASSROOTS EFFORTS TOWARDS SAVING THE BANYANS TREES IN GREATER BENGALURU

Banyan Trees(Ficus Benghalensis) in India are as associated and related to Indian subcontinent as rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Kaveri, Krishna, Narmada, Brahmaputra or Himalayas and Vindhyas. They are the national trees of India. These magnificent trees are green giants and a treat to locate, identify, admire and find from a distance with full green foliage and gigantic size canopy and a huge trunk with aerial roots at many places within the canopy. India has some of the largest Banyan trees in the world. Giant Banyan trees can be viewed in various geographical regions in India. Some of the largest of these trees are in Ananthpur, Lucknow, Bharuch, Narora, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and many other cities. Banyan trees have survived and thrived for hundreds of years in India. But India's growing urbanisation, population explosion and significantly the way of life away from nature is posing fresh severe challenges to the survival, sustenance, growth and long term future of these green giants. There is a crying need to save these beautiful wonders of Nature across India and abroad. While saving them will be a huge leap in environment sustenance, it will be victory for survival of mini ecosystems also which these trees nurture. Monkeys, birds, ants and other numerous creatures will benefit and thrive. This book/paper will attempt to cover the issues impacting the survival of Banyan trees in current historic urbanising transformation of India, including its attendant ills like traffic, noise, space encroachment, hawking,. SAVE THE BANYANS movement is picking up traction in Greater Bengaluru with active efforts initiated by Gigoo Omni Quality Enterprises team and volunteers/partners/passionate youth in recent months. Ironically, the march of urbanisation can also be a saviour if the active co-operation of housing societies, people, authorities is forthcoming