KOTTAYAM: It was a strange love affair that began more than four decades ago. Long back, a college student fell in love with a chela tree (Ficus amplissima or Indian Bat Tree) that spread on a palm tree on the banks of the Meenachil river at Bharananganam near Pala.
The Chela tree with numerous aerial roots, had caught his attention during his travels to college from his house at Pinnakkanadu near Erattupetta to Pala and back. Once he completed his studies, the young man moved to Kolkata to pursue his dreams and started running a rubber business there. Still, the love for the tree remained in his mind. Whenever he was at home, he used to spend time watching his beloved tree. That’s when he noticed its leaves withering. The tree was nearing its end. Soon it dried up. And he took the tree to his home and placed it safely.
As many as 42 years down the lane, the stuffed tree is carefully preserved at the house of Pius Scaria Pottenkulam, a planter and businessman from Kanjirappally. At age 66, Pius recollects how a 10-foot-tall tree arrived in his living room. “I always noticed the tree whenever I passed through Bharananganam. The Chela tree spreading its tentacles on the palm tree was such a beautiful sight to watch.
When it dried, I felt like losing one of my family members. That’s when I decided to take the tree to my home without damaging it. If I hadn’t taken it home, someone would have taken it for firewood,” Pius said. But the process of keeping the tree in its original form was a heavy task. “It took nearly six months to remove the roots safely from the palm tree stump. I worked on it whenever I came back home from Kolkata. Later, I polished the tree and placed it in my drawing room,” Pius said.
When he shifted his residence to Kottayam after winding up his business in Kolkata in 1993, Pius shifted the Chela tree to his new house. On another Environment Day, Pius’s love story remains an eye-opener for many.