Baobab tree of Golconda

October 2, 2014
Until a few months back I knew only about Savanur's baobab trees. After some online research I realized India was home to thousands of baobab trees spread across the Western and South Indian states. Gujarat tops the list with close to a thousand trees, followed by Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh too. Hyderabad is home to 5 or 6 baobab trees but I've found only one until now.. that's at Golconda fort.

October 25, 2014
The morning was cloudy and started raining around 11 am. The tree is located inside Naya Qila ~ new fort. I hired an autorickshaw from Golconda fort entrance to reach the tree. It was 10 minute ride. This tree is slightly different in looks compared with Savanur trees.

I was glad to see the iron fencing around the base, keeps vandals away. Also a care-taker was present, the man looked sincere to his duty. You can see lot of graffiti on the tree trunk.. made long time back by insensitive people :( This tree is popularly known as Hathiyan or Elephant tree. It's girth is 27.4 metres, in feet its 89 feet. The trunk is so huge that it has two "rooms" in it. To reach the room, one has to climb up the trunk and then descend in the hollow. Of course you can expect to see creatures like frogs in there.

Our care-taker was a soft spoken person. He said this tree's parts resemble elephant body parts. For instance, a branch here looks like a trunk of an elephant.

This looks like elephant's feet.

Fold on the surface seems like folds in elephant skin.

For a tree of this size, the leaves are pretty small and soft too. The leaves are lobed and they dry quickly. Baobab leaves are a contrast to its trunk which is a succulent. It is said that baobabs store huge quantities of water in their trunk and branches.

The seven lobed baobab leaf.

That's the care-taker of this magnificent tree. I can't recall his name..

Glimpse of the fort walls from under the tree.

An ancient mosque next to the tree. This mosque is said to be constructed by Aurangzeb after defeating Abul Hasan Tanashah, the last king of Qutb Shahi dynasty.

Here is a list of known Baobab trees of India:

1. Hilltop Nightclub, Vagator, Goa
2. Cabo Raj Bhavan, Dona Paula, Goa
3. Quepem, Goa
4. Bamboo Motels, Goa
5. Mahalakshmi temple premises, Martur
6. next to Yogapur mosque, Bijapur
7. near Ibrahim Roza, Bijapur, Karnataka (may have dried out)
8. Dodda Hunashe Matha, Savanur, Karnataka
9. Near the aquarium, Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bengaluru
10. Attapur, Hyderabad
11. Vansthalipuram, Hyderabad, Telangana
12. near Chappel Road, Hyderabad, Telangana
13. Ranganath temple at Nanakramguda Hyderabad, Telangana
14. Uppal in Chengicherla Reserve Forests, Hyderabad, Telangana
15. Shivalaya on Balachandruni Guttalu, Nalagonda, Telangana
16. Nellore, Andhrapradesh
17. Theosophist Society Gardens, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
18. The American College campus, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
19. Chinmaya Vidyalaya's campus, Ilanthope, Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu
20. Mangaliawas near Ajmer, Rajasthan
21. Vadodara, Gujarat
22. Dayapur, Gujarat
23. Kutch, Gujarat
24. Bhanagar, Gujarat
25. Baroda, Gujarat
26. Victoria Garden, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
27. Mulund, Mumbai, Maharashtra
28. Byculla zoo, Mumbai, Maharashtra
29. Outside the Vasai fort, Maharashtra
30. Tilak road and Ghole road, Pune, Maharastra
31. near Aurangabad, Maharashtra
32. Mandavgad or Mandu, Madhya Pradesh
33. near Sangam, left bank of the Ganga, Prayag, Uttar Pradesh 
34. Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, Bihar

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