The African Boabab tree is under increasing abiotic stress across the world. A paper in ‘Frontiers in Forests and Global Change’ noted how: “The heightened disturbance predicted from increased climate variability, hot droughts and landfalling tropical cyclones magnifies mortality risk for, ‘Africa’s favourite tree,’” This is true for some of the baobab trees even in Hyderabad. One of them found just off the PVNR Expressway has collapsed exposing the inner hollow trunk. While the tree has survived, the surrounding area is being encroached with building debris being dumped to block the pathway for worshippers from reaching the tree that is near the ancient Ananta Padmanabhaswamy temple.
“Loss of habitat is one form of climatic stress that is affecting the baobab trees in Africa. But in India, this is not a factor. The trees are mostly found in western ghats, peninsular India and central India where the rainfall is for a short duration,” says Sangram Chavhan, Senior Scientist at the National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management.
However, a nature group from the city now says that they have a count of 37 boababs in and around Hyderabad. The number includes a group of seven trees in the Aramghar area with two of them inside the Jamia Islamia Darul Uloom and three inside the Zilla Parishad High School in Aramghar with one of them with a girth of approximately 45 feet.
