Have you ever come across an age-old tree in your neighbourhood? Or did your grandparents tell you a story of a plant they have been seeing in the neighbourhood since their childhood? If yes, some of them may qualify for heritage status.

For most of us, Devanahalli is synonymous with Bengaluru International Airport. In fact, a tamarind grove spread across 53 acres of land at Nallur village in Devanahalli taluk is declared as a heritage site by the Karnataka Biodiversity Board.

Ananta Hegde Ashisara, Chairman of Western Ghats Task Force of Karnataka, says that the grove has survived the vagaries of nature for many centuries. The trees in the grove have prop roots and root suckers that are found in banyan trees.

Ashisara says that the Board has recommended 10 trees across the state for heritage status after taking into consideration their uniqueness and historical value. While the youngest of them is a little more than 100 years, the oldest is nearing 900 years.

One of them is a four-century-old banyan tree with a girth of 330 metres at Jade village in Shimoga district. This tree covers almost two acres of land.

There may be many such trees in your surroundings. Conservation of such trees may help study their gene pool and propagate such plants for future.

Here I want to mention about a variety of wild mango. Until a few years ago, three wild mango trees on a hillock in Mangalore were bearing ‘red mundappa’ varieties. Now neither the hillock is there nor the trees. The entire area is covered by a shopping mall now.

You may get varieties of fruits from different parts of the globe there, but not ‘red mundappa’ that once grown there.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in