Narudhoo Lost it’s 50 Year Old Historical Tree

The toppling of the largest and the historically important banyan tree in Sh. Narudhoo caused by the windy storm of the previous Sunday night has brought great grief upon the nature lovers.

The Sunday night’s storm which went on from midnight 1 am to morning 5 am in Narudhoo had toppled over several other trees such as mango trees and coconut palm trees along with the banyan tree.

As per the previous chief of the island, the age of the banyan tree has surpassed more than 50 years. In a statement released by EPE, during the rule of the previous chief of the island around 15 years ago, the tree has been under the protection and safe guarding of the island developing committee along with island office ever since.

During those days, the location of the tree was an abandoned area in the island with no permission for housing. However, now there’s housing facilities even in a close radius/range of 50ft around the tree.

The loss of the banyan tree from the surface of the island did not just bring grief, but it brought a feeling of emptiness as well. The tree had always brought the sense of completeness to the surface of Narudhoo. The tree had also been used by the fishermen to locate the directions during their fishing journey. Therefore, citizens of the island had always used the tree to find the right points to catch fishes near the harbor.

Fishermen belonging to the atoll uses such trees visible from a long distance to ensure that they’ve found and arrived at the right fishing point. There are certain methods they use to ensure such things.

In the windy storm brought by the Sunday night had successfully toppled over the second largest banyan tree in the island as well. These great losses from narudhoo would bring sorrow upon every single nature lover.

Lately, different areas of Maldives are experiencing windy storms leading to destruction of houses and trees of the nature.