Climate Action India Project #25669

Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

by Applied Environmental Research Foundation(AERF)

Giant Trees for Climate Change Mitigation in India

Project Report | Jun 14, 2025
The Giant that hosts a thousand lives

By Jayant Sarnaik | Project Leader

Giant Bibhitaki trunk covered with mushrooms

Dear Supporters,

Here is short story of a Giant tree and 1000 lives it support narrated by our field biologists.

Deep within the sacred groves of the Western Ghats, we recently encountered a breathtaking sight—one that spoke volumes about the delicate and complex web of life hidden in these ancient forest patches. During our field survey under the ongoing “Giant Trees Conservation” campaign, we came across a massive Terminalia bellirica tree, standing silently yet powerfully among a grove that hosts over 37 such giants. What made this particular tree unforgettable was not just its size—measuring over 500 cm in girth—but the living phenomenon it had become.

The entire trunk of the tree was covered in thousands of tiny orange mushrooms identified as Marasmius leveilleanus. The mass blooming of this mushroom, forming a spectacular carpet of life climbing up the tree's weathered bark. It was a rare natural event—like watching a hidden world reveal itself in full glory. This single tree, towering and aged, had transformed into a vertical habitat, supporting not just the mushroom bloom but mosses, lichens, insects, and even tiny seedlings clinging to life in crevices of the bark.

Giant trees like this Terminalia bellirica are more than just old trunks—they are living ecosystems. In sacred groves, where nature has been protected for generations due to spiritual and cultural beliefs, these giants act as biodiversity magnets. Birds nest in their hollows, bats roost in their canopies, and a web of insects, fungi, and microbes make their homes in and around them

The mass blooming of Marasmius leveilleanus on this tree raises fascinating ecological questions. Scientifically, such blooms occur due to a combination of environmental and biological triggers. The high humidity and moisture of the monsoon, the presence of lignin and cellulose in aging bark, and microclimatic conditions around such large trees all create the perfect stage for saprotrophic fungi like Marasmius to flourish. These fungi are natural decomposers—breaking down organic matter, recycling nutrients, and enriching the soil. Their appearance in such numbers may reflect a healthy ecological process, though it can also sometimes indicate that the tree is undergoing internal decay or stress. Still, in moist forest ecosystems like the Western Ghats, fungi and trees have coexisted for centuries in a symbiotic rhythm that maintains forest health.

This observation reminds us why the protection of sacred groves and their giant trees is more crucial than ever. Every such tree is a microhabitat, and its preservation means safeguarding hundreds of species that rely on it—both visible and invisible. Sacred groves are some of the last remaining refuges of untouched biodiversity. Their unique microclimate, untouched canopy, and age-old traditions of protection have allowed such ecological marvels to survive.

Through the support of donors and well-wishers via our GlobalGiving project, we continue to monitor, document, and conserve these giant trees. By doing so, we are not only protecting tree species like Mangifera indica, Terminalia bellirica, Olea dioica, and Bombax ceiba, but also the lesser-seen life forms like mushrooms, mosses, and epiphytic ferns that they host. Our goal remains to highlight the silent but vital roles these trees play, and to ensure their stories reach more people who care about the planet.

The tree we found may never speak, but through its bark, fungi, and canopy, it tells us that every leaf, every spore, and every inch of forest matters. By protecting one tree, we protect an entire ecosystem.

Our dedicated field team is very much skilled at documenting diversity of life that Giant trees support. Skills and in-depth knowledge of interconnectedness of nature are equally important along with passion.

We hope by now you have understood that we are taking utmost care of your donation and it will be used to save Giant trees and associated species for at least next decade.

Best regards

Jayant

Field team documenting biodiversity of Giant trees

Giant tree with mushrooms and other life

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Mar 12, 2025
Story of 3 Giant trees

By Jayant Sarnaik | Project Leader

Tetrameles -beloved home of honeybees

Dear Supporter,

In this update, I would like to share my perspective on why I thought of launching a campaign to conserve Giant trees. Giant trees have always left a deep impression on me wherever I have seen them in my own journey in the field of conservation over last 30 odd years. One of few key characterstics that come to my mind when I see them is sheer magnifude of their presence. It takes lot of time to observe a single tree with all of its features. Huge trunk, wide and long branches, an all encompassing canopy. Afer completing the first few years of this campaign, I realized that we are very fortunate to have found this purpose because we are too small in every sense to claim that we are responsible for conservation of these trees. Irrespective of our small contribution to the cause, our campaign is hugly popular and successful because it is the sheer love for these giants and appreciation of their beauty by like minded people across the world that is actually saving these trees from getting axed.

In this brief report I am going to share stories of 3 giant trees that I visited from 3 totally different locations. In December this year, I visited the forest landscapes in the central indian state of Chhattisgarh and came across a giant specimen of Terminalia arjuna. After watching the tree closely, I found out that the trunk and stem of the tree was full of scratches to such an extent that it looked like an artwork. In reality, it was a result of regular climbing of this tree by a sloth bear family to eat the fruits , eat honey comb and / or keeping oneself safe from predators such as tigers. In the process, the sloth bears become dispersers of the seeds of this tree. It is this amazing symbiotic relationship that is keeping the entire ecosystem healthy and vibrant.

The second giant tree that I have been watching for quite sometime is a giant Tetrameles nudiflora in Mhasala block of Raigad district, This tree is especially loved by honey bees for setting up bee colonies. Its branches are currently full with honey combs. Another peculiar feature of this tree is its hollow is used by Great hornbill for nesting. Our team recorded presence of great hornbill on this tree in December 2020. We did not any confirmation about its nesting due to COVID. But this year, our team spent few days to understand the situation deeply and confirmed that this magical bird is indeed having a nest in the holllow. Upon reflection I have always found that human beings have very limited capacity to understand and describe the splendour of the giant trees. We merely describe their attributes from a utilitarian perspective.

The third tree is redwood tree that I saw in Muir Wood National Monument in California, United States. These trees are so big and tall that one becomes speechless and is at total peace. This is because we finally accept that we don't have any choice but to surrender our ego, intelligence and imagination in front of them.

Thanks for being very kind and consistent supporter of this very important purpose.

Best regards

Jayant

Tetrameles-with nesting of Great hornbill

Redwood giants-01

Redwood giants-02

Giant arjuna tree

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Nov 18, 2024
Why it is worth supporting conservation of Giant trees?

By Jayant Sarnaik | Project Leader

Giant Terminalia bellirica

Dear Well Wisher,

Greetings from the Western Ghats!

The campaign on Saving Giant trees will complete seven years next month. We don't realize how time passes when we are motivated and passionate about a cause that matters more than anything else. Giant tree conservation ranks very high when it comes to conservation initiatives of AERF. More so because it is the first crowd funding campaign we launched.

We have enjoyed this journey thoroughly and would like to thank all the individual and institutional supporters from the bottom of our heart. It is often said that in conservation every Dollar counts. While we do value that we think that broadening the constituency of conservation is biggest challenge and is even more important.

Crowd funding campaigns actually provide that important opportunity. Thus it is our foremost responsibility to communicate the impact every supporters donation is creating for Giant trees conservation, local communities and associated biodiversity. This report will talk about the monitoring effort our team undertook to know the conservation status of the Giant trees that we are protecting with your support and biodiversity that is thriving with the help of these Giants.

Our team of plant ecologist and community expert surveyed giant trees under protection for last five to seven years at 18 different locations and documented the conservation status of 40 Giant trees consisting 10 different species. 3 out of the 10 species have become very rare and out of the 7 species wild mangoes were maximum in numbers. It is very important that we are able to save wild varities of Mangoes in this region. They are our heritage. Our team documented significant diversity of undergrowth that is thriving under and on the trees. They counted total 60 different species that included herbs, shrubs, climbers, orchids and trees. Very importantly, out of the 60 species, 32 were trees. After going through the list of the tree species that have grown under these Giants, it becomes very clear that 60% of these trees have regenerated through dropping of Hornbills. In other words, seeds of these trees are food of the hornbills. Thus it becomes evident that conservation of these trees is not only providing habitat for many bird species, honeybees and primates such as Hanuman langurs, they serve as an indicator of diversity of forests that surrounds them. AERF is also saving these community forests.

We are very happy to share a detailed report of this assessment so that complexity of the interconnectedness among different species is well understood. It further emphasizes and underscores the critical importance of Giant trees in a forest landscape that is continuously facing degradation due to deforestation.

We hope you will enjoy the images , the data on species and the detailed report prepared by our team.

Thanks once again for your continuous support and we hope to carry on this work at least for one more decade.

Best

Jayant

Stereospermum chelonoides -giant

Old growth trees support fungi diversity

Natural cavities are important for hornbill nests

Attachments:

Impact of Giant trees conservation (PDF)

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