The great peepal tree in Haryana that people believe witnessed the Mahabharata war, the banyan tree in Kanpur from the branches of which 144 freedom fighters were hanged, the African Baobab tree in Hyderabad in which 40 thieves could hide during daytime are some of the stops on the itinerary of Uday Krishna Peddireddi. He calls it the ‘Big Tree Quest’. Mr Peddireddi, a businessman and nature enthusiast from Hyderabad, is set to embark on an endeavour to visit, record and document the heritage trees of India.
The ‘Big Tree Quest’ involves a total 135 trees and counting, which he has mapped out. He just sold an eco-resort he had maintained in the Tipeshwar forests, and was on a break when he had a random thought to visit the oldest 10 trees in the world. “I started doing ground work, and chanced upon so many trees all across our country with interesting history or anecdotes behind them. Then my plan changed to visiting at least one oldest/biggest tree in each State,” Uday Krishna shared.
The more he dug into the topic, the higher number emerged, and he decided not to be confined to a number, and visit every tree with a story behind it. “It was a realisation for me how much the lives of ordinary Indians are intertwined with trees and nature. We are being alienated from such heritage thanks to the development narrative which is proving to be highly destructive,” he said.
