Sayaji Vad

Tree By 4 Comments

Baroda has long been associated with the Banyan tree but only a few people know that the city’s biggest Banyan tree is situated right in the heart of the city, inside the Lukshmi Vilas Palace compound.

This 130 year old tree is known as the “Sayaji Vad”  and was planted by the Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III himself. This huge tree was received as a small sapling by the Maharaja as a gift, from some dignitary during his visit to Sri Lanka in January 1887.

This almost 80 feet tall tree has become an ecosystem in itself along the years. The tree sprawls a massive 56 meters in diameter and sustains about 20 different species of plants/trees under it’s shade. Apart from this, almost 40-50 different types of birds visit this tree daily, from which many have made it their home. It is also a refuge for cows and other animals during the sweltering summers and the resting place of about 20-25 peacocks at night.

Such is the sprawl of this tree, that it can accommodate about 1500 people under it’s massive foliage at a time !!!

Partial sources: Times of India, Kaustubh Gokhale & Arun Mujumdar

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Connecting people to Sayaji Nagri - #Vadodara (#Baroda)'s History & Heritage...

4 Comments

  1. P.A.Pancholi says:

    Happy to see Sayaji vaad and such trees n other monuments be included in tourism map of Vadodara. Air polution report appearing in today’s news paper of our cityis alarming. We need woods n planting some trees will not do. Quqntity n quality of drinking water is also causing worries. We have not added new sources after Ajawaw lake. We can be at dock any time.Present Mun Comm / er’s approach to the problems is very very positive. It should not lose the cover of maintenance. We need to be hopeful n watchful. This is how I feel as a citizen.

  2. Neel Parikh says:

    I am born and living in Vadodara since 1994 and I never know about this tree nor the GSFC one. This information is like treasure to me. Thanks a lot.

  3. Uday pare says:

    What a beautiful wonderful website I’ve stumbled upon! Living here for more than 2 decades now yet i had no idea about this tree.
    Can we visit this tree? I have been to LVP tour many times but never saw this.
    Kindly reply. Thanks

    1. HoVB says:

      One has to take permission from Palace authorities 🙂

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