Lucknow :

Apart from a ‘gulab vatika’ (rose garden) and ‘aushadhi vatika’ (medicinal garden), Kukrail now boasts of a ‘parijat vatika’.

Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the Van Mahotsava on Wednesday and 21 parijat (Adansonia digitata) trees were planted at the spot. All trees were more than eight feet in height and the one planted by the CM was about 17 feet high.

“Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) had planted a parijat tree at Lohia park. Now, I can see a depression in the earth around the tree which shows that people have started paying obeisance to the tree. We are planting it on a large scale so that more people may know of the mythologically significant but long-forgotten tree varieties,” said the CM.

At least 21 parijat trees were also planted in Jhansi on the same day.

The Ramayana and Mahabharata mention around 156 tree varieties and some of the prominent ones have been selected by the forest department for plantation across the state depending on soil and weather conditions.

Parijat is an exotic tree and remains green for almost six months. It is said to be one of the gems from the ‘samudra-manthan’. Believed to have been brought to earth by the Pandavas, it is also called ‘kalp vriksha’ as it helped them win the battle of Mahabharata.

Similarly, Kadamb (Anthocephalus cadamba) is mentioned in the Mahabharata as a tree dear to Lord Krishna who played the flute under a ‘kadamb’ tree on the banks of the Yamuna.

Apart from parijat and kadamb, trees like ‘Sita ashok’, ‘tamaal’, ‘maulshree’, ‘tulsi’, ‘harsingar’, banyan and peepal that are mentioned in folklore will be planted extensively at religious ‘parikramas’ and on government land. The chosen tree varieties have huge environmental and medicinal significance as well.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / July 02nd, 2015