This 250-year-Old Banyan Tree of India is Widest Tree in the World

The great banyan tree located in Howrah (Kolkata) in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden is the biggest and oldest tree in India. It covers an area of about 14500 square meters or 3.5 acres making it the widest tree in the world. 

From a distance, this tree looks like a mini forest however the wood that look like trunks of trees are actually aerial roots of the old banyan tree, these roots amount to an approximate number of 3600. The tree's primary 15.7-meter-wide (51-foot) trunk had to be removed after two cyclones in the nineteenth century caused a fungus infection. Fortunately, the tree's "clonal colony" made of its roots are still alive and well.    

A 330-meter-long road was built around the tree to allow tourists to drive around its circumference, but the Great Banyan continues to spread, becoming wider with each passing year. It has already risen to above 450 metres. 

Other enormous banyan trees in India include the Old Banyan in the Andhra Pradesh district of Anantapur, the Gigantic Banyan Tree in Ranthambore National Park, and the Big Banyan in Bangalore. Banyan trees or as they are called  Ficus benghalensis specifically denote the Indian banyan tree which also happens to be India’s National Tree. It’s also a tree that is deeply connected with the Indian religion In Hinduism a banyan trees leaf is known as the resting place of Lord Krishna One of the many Avatars of Vishnu the Protector. It is also mentioned a lot in Buddhism’s pali canon.  

In a popular Vietnamese myth, the black lines on the Moon represent a banyan, a mystical tree first planted on Earth by a man named Cui, according to Vietnamese folklore of the Mid-Autumn Festival. When his wife irrigated it with filthy water, the tree uprooted itself with the guy clinging to it and soared to the Moon, where he lived forever with the Moon Lady and the Jade Rabbit. 

Banyan trees are sometimes also utilised to produce bonsai trees due to their complicated root system and profuse branching.