Great Banyan Tree in Howrah: The image is a single tree and not a forest.
This 250-year-old tree occupies an area of 4 acres and has a circumference of 1 km. You could easily confuse this tree for a forest. It became diseased after it was struck by lightning, so in 1925 the middle of the tree was excised to keep the remainder healthy; this has left it as a clonal colony, rather than a single tree.
A 330 metre long road was built around its circumference, but the tree continues to spread beyond it.
