Peepal vs Connaught Place

From roofs to cracks, the Ficus religiosa has taken over Delhi's iconic market and become the unintended emblem of civic neglect

- Paras Singh

Amid the crumbling plaster and peeling paint of Connaught Place, an uninvited tenant has quietly taken root ~ literally.

In cracks, on parapet walls, along the labyrinth of colonnaded corridors, Ficus religiosa - the Peepal tree ~ has woven itself into the bones of the city’s most iconic marketplace.

Sacred yet fiercely opportunistic if left unchecked, it has become an adversary for traders and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), carving a silent, green siege into a heritage site.

A walk through CP reveals the extent of the takeover. In A-block alone, a dozen or more trees pierce the stuccoed skyline, some clinging to the outer walls, others perched on first-floor ledges with roots dangling all the way down to the road. Near a public convenience run by NDMC, a giant Peepal has swallowed the facade of a two-storey building almost whole. In D-block’s service lane near the Odeon Cinema, the plants thrive in exposed brickwork, their roots gripping the walls like ancient fingers.

C-block is worse. Above the Jain Book Depot - whose partial collapse in 2017 became a cautionary tale - dozens of Peepal trees now sprout, their heart-shaped leaves fluttering over a roof system already weakened by age. On rooftops in M-block too, the Peepal casts an almost beautiful silhouette as it rises from crevices.

Experts stress that this invasion is not random. The Peepal is among the most resilient lithophytes on the subcontinent, a species evolved to grow on stone. Its roots, thin as thread at first, search relentlessly for moisture. When they find it, they expand, drawing water from the soil beneath and shrinking the ground. Over time, as tiny wisps become full-fledged trees, the roots widen their reach, and it exerts pressure on the very structure that supported them - walls, parapets, foundations.