Treespotting in Bangalore/Bengaluru

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to start this piece and finally decided that it really did not matter as long as I got my thoughts across. So here goes: A visit from my dear friends M&S (as I would like to call them here) a week back triggered a conversation about one of the Bangalore walks they had experienced. Bangalore walks for the uninitiated is an experiential tour of the sights and sounds of the city of Bangalore(Bengaluru is an alternate spelling/pronunciation), in South India conducted by knowledeable guides and similar in concept to the famous walking tours in cities such as London. So anyway, it was interesting to hear quite a few interesting anecdotes about the city I like call home and it triggered a curiosity within to join one of these tours. Sure enough, the curiosity turned into genuine interest when M proposed a nature walk one of the walking tours on offer. What follows is a short note of my experience on one of the walks along with a few after-the-event reflections. Hope you like it.

Bangalore walks organizes these walks and you can find out more about them from their website. Anyway, M&S, my mother and I were the members of the small group along with Roopa(?) for the nature walk last Saturday and this walk was in Lalbagh - one of the two lungs this city still retains thankfully.

We assembled at the foot of the hillock (a famous landmark for those who know this place) at 7AM this last Saturday and Vijay our guide for the walk introduced the walk against the historical backdrop of the parks origins. Now I must admit I belong to the wary kind when historical references are made since they tend to be generous in reference to rulers of the time. From that standpoint, the references to the garden being a creation of Haider Ali and Tippu Sultan did sound far fetched when I happened to read it in history books during my school days. Yet as I stood at the foot of the hillock, it did fill me with a strange sense of awe at the history surrounding the place. To me the interesting aspect of the history of the place emerged from the fact, this contrary to most historical places, this was one place that had actually grown from its initial size, the positive change attributed mainly to the changeover in control from Haider/Tippu to the British. Interestingly, there was not only the change in terms of the ownership but also in purpose and intent, so while it appears that Haider and Tipu saw the opportunity to create the equivalent of paradise as described in Islamic tradition by constructing a traditional Islamic garden, the British turned the place into a botanical garden bringing the elements of modern science and research.

As one moves from the foot of the hillock towards the Lalbagh glass house, one can visually grasp the styles employed in the design of the place. Now unless you are architecturally inclined or have a good understanding of landscaping and garden design a number of elements are likely to completely escape you so dont fault yourself for that. This is where Vijay steps in pointing out in fairly elaborate detail the subtle elements that appeal even to a layman like myself. A simple example would be the contrast in the use of straight lines only by Haider/Tippu in strict conformance with Islamic tradition with the use of curved boundaries by the British in a single large green amalgam.

As we walked history gave way in some sense to treespotting. I dont know if thats the right words but it certainly describes the activity adequately. So there it was, we were now on the trail of trees of various kinds, starting with the fig family (Ficus ... for the Linnealy inclined) and moving on to various trees of various kinds ranging from conifers to trees which I have never seen but heard (e.g., Mahagony, Ebony) to trees with mythological / historical context (e.g., Palash tree) and so on. It was definitely the most informative part of the entire walk.

Unfortunately, this was also the time I lost the plot because there was just too much history to keep track of and between botanists - Indian and European, viceroys, East India and British army characters so much happened that it was impossible to keep up. But anyway, there was nothing that could not have been researched separately especially with the Internet around, the best way probably is to retrace the path in Lalbagh and focus on a specific set of trees and inquire into the details. Back to the walk itself, after some more treespotting, we ended with a

So thats a short note on treespotting in Lalbagh. I hope to provide some more updates when I have done the walk myself a few more times, but for now, the report will have to stop here.