Ficus trees, age-and survival-

Ficus tree age-and survival-

ref Trees in Metros today--

The Ficus genus --covers Ashwattha, Banyan and Oudamber esp. and have been covered in my earlier posts.

This post will try and touch on is on its magnificent survival  .
I am also now  realising why these 3 trees are mentioned in the Shree VS-

 In GIta Lord Krishna says "I am the Ashwattha, his Vibhutis...Divine Glories- Chp 10, sloka 26.

These great ficus trees have  survived all kinds of ravages over years of - droughts, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and other natural calamities and their species survival is estimated by a Molecular Clock as...(hard to even imagine this  )--as maybe over 50 million years....God -I cant even imagine ..this time span.....

So how did these Trees achieve it and esp. now with Man's greed and encroachment, felling and sheer vandalism-in the last 200 years of so called advancement.

Some thoughts :
1) Ficus Genus are tropical and have been venerated & protected  in India & SE Asia.
2)The very nature of Ficus is to survive--grip and hang on -even has been called a Strangler Fig tree.Their  pollination and spread is mostly by birds and wasps -not on the whims or vagaries of Man's behaviour. 

Thank God for that .

3) Personally, I believe it is God's Will alone ..for creation and preservation and so it has a very special place in our Religious texts and in Buddhism ; 

In fact aptly is called "Ficus Religiosa"

4) To understand something of this Survival in a Metro ..please see pics of a Tall Ficus Ashwattha (Bodhi) gripping onto a dilapidated building entrance; have seen many like this on older buildings in every city and took this case up for study. The Root structure tells a lot. The  location is in a market lane now being "Developed"-near my house in R.A.Puram, Chennai. God alone knows how this magnificent brave tree will fare that has definitely stood about 15- 20 years ---

I take Faith in God Protects 

Vrikshaa Naam Pataye Namaha
Rgds
TR