Poona’s palm

When a date palm tree on the premises of Poona’s Sardar Sorabji Patel Agiary was classified as "heritage” by the municipal corporation, it came as a pleasant surprise to trustee Jehangir Vakil. "Honestly we have no idea how it was evaluated and no one has even inspected the premises so we were taken aback when the Press wrote about it! We have not received any correspondence for the same either,” he told Parsiana on June 23, 2021.

The "heritage" tree on Poona’s Patel Agiary premises

As noted the Hindustan Times (HT) of June 11, the heritage and garden committee of the Poona Municipal Corporation (PMC) had come up with a unique concept in 2015 which categorized old trees not only on the criteria of age but also the value of heritage, rare, unique botanical and ecological significance. The PMC has identified about 25 such trees.
The news report stated that other nominees in the report tabled in the PMC heritage committee for approval include peepal and other trees at Parvati temple complex, the banyan tree at Poona University, other local varieties at the University complex and the Vaikunth crematorium among others. Many of these are over a century old. HT quoted Ashok Ghorpade, chief of the garden department of the PMC as saying, "After giving approval by the heritage committee, we placed green board on the trees which includes local, botanical, vernacular and popular names of the tree, origin of the tree, historical information, medicinal use.”
The fire temple, the oldest in Poona, was painstakingly restored four years ago when it celebrated its 174th salgirah (see "The preservation of Patel Agiary,” Parsiana, May 7, 2017).