Kheda: The inclusion of the Sun Temple at Modhera in Mehsana district of Gujarat and Vadnagar in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites has turned the limelight on the heritage tree of the state, the Bhojpatri tree located in Nadiad. The tree has been declared a Heritage Tree by the Government of Gujarat.
The Bhojpatri tree growing in the botanical garden of J&J College of Science is managed by the Nadiad Education Society. The tree, whose scientific name is Melaleuca leucodendron, is also known as Kayaputi (Kajuputi) and Bhojpatri in the regional language. This is Gujarat's only Bhojpatri tree which is about 65 years old.
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The Bhojpatri tree in Nadiad is said to have been planted in 1952 by the then chairman of the Department of Botany of J&J College of Science. The bark of the Bhojpatri tree was used to write texts in ancient times when paper was not invented. The speciality of this bark is that it does not attract termites and the bark does not dissolve in water.
For this reason, texts written on the bark of Bhojpatri remain safe for years. The Kayaputi Bhojpatri tree of Nadiad was declared a heritage tree by the Government of Gujarat in 2004. The tree is not found anywhere except Gujarat, Acharya Alpesh Patel of J&J College of Science said.
