From a distance, the Great Banyan can look like a small woodland. Move closer and the many upright columns begin to tell a different story: they support the spreading life of one remarkable tree.

It grows in the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden at Howrah, across the river from Kolkata. The most interesting comparison is not with a supermarket. It is with the familiar idea that every tree has one obvious central trunk.

Historical illustration comparing the Great Banyan’s canopy width with a Walmart storefront
The Great Banyan’s spreading canopy and aerial-root columns near Kolkata

How a canopy gains new supports

Banyans can send aerial roots down from branches. When those roots reach the ground and develop, they act as additional supports, helping the canopy extend outward.

The Botanical Survey of India’s Great Banyan account explains that the original main trunk was removed in 1925 after fungal infection. The wider structure continued through its network of supporting roots.

That history makes the tree especially thought-provoking. What appears to be a grove is a connected living structure whose most obvious original centre is no longer there.

Look for relationships, not just size

Follow one branch with your eyes and see where a support reaches the ground. Then look for another connection. The canopy becomes easier to understand when you read it as a network rather than trying to absorb the whole area at once.

Notice the difference between thinner descending roots and established columns. A photograph of the outer edge may show only the finished supports, while a closer permitted view can reveal stages in the process.

Avoid treating a count of roots or a canopy measurement from an old article as permanent. A living tree changes, and measurements depend on the date and method used.

Give the garden more than one stop

The banyan is a highlight within a much larger botanic collection. The garden’s official overview introduces other plant collections and notable specimens.

Choose a manageable route rather than trying to inspect every planting. A short list of three interests—a large tree, a palm collection and a flowering plant, for example—can make the visit feel coherent without becoming a checklist.

Check current opening information and ask about walking distances or access needs. Plan for the weather, water and time to rest, especially if the banyan is only one part of your day in the area.

Protect the view you came to enjoy

Keep to permitted paths and do not climb, pull on aerial roots or step into protected sections for a photograph. Roots are working parts of the tree, not ropes or props.

A historical comparison graphic accompanies the photographs of the tree. Read that graphic as a historical illustration, not a current surveyed measurement of the canopy.

Our Sunland baobab story considers another tree with an unusual interior history, while rainbow eucalyptus focuses on bark and colour. The Great Banyan adds a different lesson: sometimes the most extraordinary feature is the way a living thing stays connected.

Historical illustration comparing the Great Banyan’s canopy width with a Walmart storefront
Archive graphic comparing an estimated Great Banyan area of 156,000 square feet with a 105,000-square-foot store
Visitors walking beneath the Great Banyan’s spreading branches and aerial roots
Dense network of branches supported by aerial-root columns beneath the Great Banyan
Banyan roots spreading into leaf-covered ground

Growth supported by both roots and gardeners

The Botanical Survey of India describes more than a naturally spreading curiosity. Staff help guide developing aerial roots through bamboo channels so that they establish useful positions in the ground. The apparent woodland therefore reflects continuing care as well as the tree’s own growth. Look for the difference between a young descending root and a mature supporting column; they belong to different stages of the same process.

The garden identifies the species as Ficus benghalensis. Its long branches extend outward, while roots descend from above and become additional supports. The supporting columns can resemble separate trunks even though they belong to one tree. Understanding the direction of growth helps make sense of photographs that otherwise appear to show many independent trunks.

The lost main trunk makes the Great Banyan’s history more remarkable than a simple story of uninterrupted survival. Storm damage, infection and later intervention belong alongside the continued growth visible today. The wider network of supports gives the eye a way to understand that persistence. A supermarket comparison may suggest size, but following a branch to a supporting root explains something about the tree itself. That is the more useful scale to explore in the photographs: the relationship between individual parts and the living canopy they sustain together.

Reference: bsi.gov.in