Dr. Avnish Jolly, Chandigarh, 6th October, 2008 :Heritage Tree Tour will also be organized same day for school children of the Gurukul School, Manimajra with an objective to conserve and to educate the community on the importance of protecting our tree wealth. The tour will commence from Indira Holiday Home, Sector-24 and culminate at Sukhna Lake.
1. SECTOR 24-THE MAGNIFICENCE OF INDIRA HOLIDAY HOME: Indira Holiday Home in Sector 24-B is a great attraction for small children for its toy train, its parks and school. The park at the backside is a great eco-spot. Here you can find four very old trees of the erstwhile village Kailard and this place is very near to the Pracheen Shiv Mandir described above. The main attraction is a 9 feet thick BARGAD along the northern boundary of the home. This 300 YEARS OLD is one of the largest BARGAD in town. The tree has five huge main trunks and a canopy of 30 meters. There is free space all around and the aerial roots have space for proliferation.
The other magnificent tree of the park is a 3.5 feet diameter NEEM nearby. It has a canopy of 15 meters. The bark is knotty and dark with age. Nearby is another NEEM of 3 feet diameter and another ‘BARR’ of 3 feet thickness. The beauty of this place is amazing. There is open space all around and children’s’ programmes are held here. The place should be declared a heritage site and proper boards should be erected to educate the children.
THE HUGE PEEPAL OF BASANTI DEVI SHEETLA MATA TEMPLE, SEC 24B:
This is a historical temple of village ‘Kailad’. At one time the area was infected with the disease ‘MATA’ and people of all places flocked to the temple for ‘treatment’. The temple priest Bapu Ram Ji is 90 years old. Hukam Chard, his son recounted that the place in front of the temple, now houses, was a huge Chhappar or pond and trees all around.
Right in the centre of the temple at the entrance is a huge PEEPAL, reportedly 200 year old, is an old as the Temple. Its width is 5.5 feet and canopy 30 meters. 27 huge branches emanate from the trunk and distribute uniformly in all directions. The tree is a favourite haunt of parrots, squirrels, doves and crows, some of whom come here at dusk and dwell in the various hollows and crevices of the holy tree.