Madras Day series on natural history: nearly two dozen pairs of hands needed to form a human chain encircling this Baobab in Adyar

If one set their mind to understanding this Age in earnest, they would arrive at this conclusion without any anfractuous philosophical wandering. It is an Age where epithets are taken in vain, being used mindlessly. What should be reserved for the sublime is misdirected into eulogising the quotidian. And when the sublime shows up, no apt epithet is to be found, all the suitable ones having been frittered away on everyday things. Recently, while in the presence of a tree at Andhra Mahila Sabha in Adyar, this writer was acutely made aware he had squandered away a valise of epithets denoting size in all the writing he had done before. Guilty of overworking “Brobdingnagian” to a frazzle, he was tongue-tied when the truly Brobdingnagian stared at him, a massive branch wedged in its cheek in amused derision.

It is a Baobab whose trunk takes multiple pairs of hands to be held in a comfortable embrace. T.D. Babu, associated with tree conservation organisation Nizhal, has had a ringside view of this tree being encircled in a human chain; and the exercise took nearly two dozen pairs of hands. This Baobab is Adansonia digitata or African Baobab.

The massive Baobab at Andhra Mahila Sabha on August 12, 2025.
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PRINCE FREDERICK

He explains: “In 2023, as a Madras Day exercise, Nizhal together with the Forest Department organised a tree walk with multiple stops. At Andhra Mahila Sabha, the participants did a succession of human chains fully encircling the tree, and it took around 20 pairs of hands to do so.”

Baobabs are engineered by nature to be big hulking beings; but nurture determines the extent to which they follow that script. Babu notes the Baobab at Andhra Mahila Sabha has found a helpful environment and that has enabled it to reach its potential. He points out the tree’s age would be anywhere between 250 to 300 years. It is still in the flush of youth: a Baobab’s life expectancy is 1000 years. One need not be surprised to find Baobabs departing from planet earth prematurely. The lack of a conducive physical space can send them packing early. A Baobab at Egmore Museum left, whole centuries un-lived.

The Baobab at Andhra Mahiba Sabha predates the organisation, and Babu remarks that the tree has been revered by the local populace through the centuries as sacred, a factor that would have aided it before it had the protection of a vast compound wall around it.

The Baobab at Andhra Mahila Sabha.
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Special Arrangement

It is the fruiting season, and the tree was sporting a few fruits during the recent visit. The fruits, as well as the leaves, have uses for the dining table. Babu notes that even when the Baobab is reduced to its “bare bones”, it would wear quite a look. During summer, being a deciduous tree, it sheds all its leaves. At that time, it would look like it has been turned on its head, standing upside down — the branches would look like roots having been suspended in air. Babu adds that during such times, the Baobab evokes the shape of a bandicoot. The shape of trunk gives the impression of horde of elephant legs being spliced together — one of the Tamil names for the Baobab tree is Annapuli.

A long shot of the Baobab at Andhra Mahila Sabha on August 12, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

This tree is among those in Chennai that Nizhal and the forest department want to be honoured with plaques that commentate upon their significance and announce their heritage status.