Last week, the Maharashtra State Government announced that it would declare trees in urban areas, which are older than 50 years, as ‘Heritage Trees’. Going a step ahead, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has already identified around 25 such trees, which have heritage value, based on criteria of historical, botanical and ecological significance. One of these is the date palm tree, located within the premise of Pune’s 178-year-old, Sardar Sorabji Ratanji Patel Dar-e-Meher,  at Nana Peth, which houses a lush and dense urban forest sanctuary, in the heart of the bustling city.

As per PMC, the heritage and garden committee had come up with a unique concept in 2015. The PMC Garden Department identified almost 45 such trees fitting in the category of heritage, old, historical significance and unique species in the city, including the Pimple and Chapha trees at Parvati Temple complex; the banyan tree at Pune University, Medshinigi tree at Marimata temple (inside Pune University campus) and Shirish tree in Vaikunth crematorium. 

Ashokh Ghorpade, Chief Garden Department – PMC, said, “Before the state government, the PMC introduced a heritage trees concept in 2015. After giving approval by the heritage committee, we placed green board on the tress which includes local, botanical, vernacular and popular names of the tree, origin of the tree, historical information, medicinal use.”