Another Michaung rescue: the boabab at Egmore museum

The boabab tree at Egmore museum rescued with the help of a tree expert

In a desolate area, towards the inside of the Egmore museum complex stands a boabab tree. A board parked hard by spouts general information about boababs. There should be another board detailing the biography of this boabab, particularly its vicissitudes. From its grand bearing, it has now transformed into something slightly more than a trunk and roots. The good news is that it is living. During Michaung, the tree slumped. Reportedly, it took efforts from the local PWD team (engaged in maintenance works at the museum) and the museum authorities to get the tree back on course again.

According to PWD sources familiar with the development, the services of an expert in tree replantation were used. Reportedly, some of the branches were lopped off to enable the exercise.

Even when the tree was standing in its full and original form, tree conservationist T.D. Babu sounded a word of concern about it. He drew attention to the area surrounding the tree, the squalor that marked it. It betrayed the level of priority being accorded to it, he had remarked.

That word of concern has not lost its relevance.