In the middle of Karkhana Road, traffic splits around an old neem tree.
Its massive trunk, now wrapped in a purple silk saree, rises from a small circular platform painted yellow and red. The lower portion is painted white, while inside a hollow-like opening in the bark is a carved and painted face that devotees worship as goddess Mahankali. Above it, a sprawling green canopy stretches across the road. Just metres away stands the Sri Mahankali temple.
To traffic police, the tree sitting almost squarely in the carriageway is a bottleneck and an accident hazard. To temple authorities and residents who have grown up around it, moving it is unthinkable.
The disagreement has acquired greater significance as road widening and work related to the elevated corridor from Jubilee Bus Station towards Thumkunta are set to alter this stretch of Secunderabad.
Mahadev, 58, president of the Sri Mahankali temple, remembers the tree looking much the same when he was a child.
“Our family has been offering prayers here since I was a child. Especially every Friday, devotees come, offer prayers and seek blessings,” he said.
Residents believe the tree is a personification of Mahankali herself. Mr Mahadev said the face visible in its trunk had been there since his childhood and that no idol had been installed around the tree. “Nobody kept any idol around the tree. The tree itself is worshipped. Everyone here knows the importance and power of this tree,” he said.
That reverence extends to how people treat it. Even during festivals, when work has to be carried out higher up, a ladder is used instead of climbing the tree.
The temple authorities maintain that they are not opposed to the infrastructure project. They have agreed to shift the temple arch and accommodate other changes required for the works, Mr Mahadev said. The tree, however, is where they draw the line.
Instead, they want the junction redesigned around it to become a cross road. One side leads towards Marredpally through the Vasavi Nagar bylanes and another towards Bowenpally through Sikh Village.
“We should come up with a solution which is okay for everyone. Our request is to make the junction an X road,” he said.
Known as neem, margosa or Indian lilac, Azadirachta indica is a long-lived tree that can survive for well over a century. Mature trees develop a deep taproot as well as an extensive network of lateral roots.
The neem has accumulated its share of folklore over the decades. Ellu Bai, 55, who has run a flower and garland cart outside the temple for more than three decades, said she grew up seeing the tree.
A bottleneck for traffic, a sacred spot for devotees
G. Shankar Raju, ACP (Traffic), Trimulgherry Division, Malkajgiri Commissionerate, said the tree creates a bottleneck during rush hour and that several accidents, including minor and fatal ones, have occurred in the area over the years. Some were reported and some were not, he said.
Traffic passes on either side of the neem tree at Karkhana, which police say causes a bottleneck and poses an accident risk. Devotees, however, want the junction redesigned around the tree instead of having it translocated.
| Photo Credit:
Naveen Kumar
He has spoken to residents about safely translocating the tree and assured them that precautions would be taken to ensure it survives and thrives at its new location. Residents, however, have remained opposed because of their religious and sentimental connection to it.
There is already a recent precedent nearby. On September 15, a mature banyan tree in front of the office of the ACP, Traffic Trimulgherry Division, at Karkhana was translocated to the Bison Polo Ground after authorities said it was obstructing vehicular movement. Police said arrangements would be made for its watering, monitoring and post-translocation care.
Mahadev said ACP Shankar Raju had given him a similar assurance about the neem. “He assured me that he would translocate it and make sure that it thrives. But it belongs to the temple here. I told him that it has the powers of the goddess and cannot be moved,” he said. “Rest is up to them.”
Published – September 17, 2026 10:39 am IST
