Ancient ‘ber’ trees at Golden Temple complex bear fruit

Perneet Singh

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 9

The efforts of the SGPC along with experts are bearing fruit, literally, as one could make it out from the fruit- laden ancient ‘ber’ trees at the Golden Temple complex these days.

There are three ancient ‘ber’ trees in the Golden Temple Complex — Dukhbhanjani Beri, Ber Baba Budha Sahib and Lachi Ber, out of which the first two are around 400 years old. At present, Ber Baba Budha Sahib is laden with lots of fruits. Talking to The Tribune, Darbar Sahib manager Partap Singh said though all three ‘ber’ trees were bearing fruit this season, these were more visible on Ber Baba Budha Sahib. He attributed the development to their concerted efforts over the past decade or so. He revealed that leaves had also appeared on a plant grafted from Dukhbanjani Beri, which had dried up. He said they didn’t pluck ‘bers’ from these ancient trees, though the devotees took away the fruits that fell as they felt blessed to get these fruits from the holy shrine. He said it was not the first time that these trees were bearing fruits, adding that it happened last year, too.

Expert Dr Paramjeet Singh, who has been involved in taking care of these trees, said they had been regularly pruning and resorting to spraying on these trees in the past few years. He said they were upbeat with the growth of the plant grafted from Dukhbhanjani Beri. He said they had provided it proper feed besides extending the area around it by uprooting the marble in its vicinity. He recalled that these trees were in a bad shape when they were handed over to them for maintenance around a decade back. He said their sustained endeavour had led to the resurrection of these trees.

Earlier, the SGPC had removed the marble flooring around these ‘ber’ trees so that they could get proper supply of sunlight, air and water. The Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) experts had pruned Ber Baba Budha Sahib besides cleaning up the lower part of its trunk. The lower portion of the tree had turned hollow due to old age as well as due to devotees throwing a variety of things under the tree as a “matter of faith”. While cleaning it up, the PAU team had recovered ancient coins, polythene bags and even a pair of spectacles underneath it. Subsequently, the area around the tree was dug up and replaced with fresh earth besides filling up the tree’s hollow part.

Besides, a part of Dukhbhanjani Beri, the ancient ‘ber’ tree having great religious significance, had dried up almost completely last year. Subsequently, the SGPC had created a lot of open space around the ‘ber’ tree following the recommendations of the experts. Moreover, an iron grill has also been put up around it, so as to protect it.

Dukhbhanjani Beri is considered as one of the most sacred places in the holy shrine’s complex. The list of those seeking to hold a “path” at this place is so long that besides commoners, big shots like Army officials, chief ministers, film actors, sportspersons and affluent businessmen are in the queue. The bookings for holding an akhand path here have already been made till 2020.