Yes you read it right...!
There is a tree in Hyderabad which saved around 150 lives during the dreadful Musi floods that happened a century ago.
Coming to its story, in 1908, a disastrous flood on the banks of Musi River shattered the life of the many living in Hyderabad, killing 50,000 people. A 300-year-old tamarind tree inside the Osmania Hospital saved the lives of over 150 people. Many people were washed away during the floods, while few managed to get hold of the tamarind tree. Most of them who climbed it, saved their lives. The strong tree resisted to fall/surrender to the powerful floods and saved as many as 150 lives and also many other lives that were dependent on these saved people. Popular Urdu poet Amjad Hyderabadi, 22, saw his entire family, including his mother, wife and daughter washed away in the flood. He was the only survivor in his family. Most of his Ruba'i, Qayamat-e-Soghra reflects his depression at the loss. A couplet muses: "Itni Dar'ya May Bhi Na Duba Amjad" , "Dub'nay Valo Ko Bus Ek Chul'lu Kafi Hai".
Every year, on September 28, environmentalists and heritage activists gather under the historic tamarind tree to pay homage to all those who lost their lives in the floods of 1908.
A small wooden board hung to the tree's trunk records the historic role it played as 'This tree saved the lives of about 150 persons in the great Musi Flood of 1908.'
This is why we say "vruksho rakshathi rakshithaha" :)
