India notable tree
The Great Banyan
Biswarup Ganguly · CC BY 3.0
32% trees around it and 298 species recorded.
- trees within 3 km32%
- wild within 10 km51%
- species recorded298
The forest around
32% trees.
Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.
Trees, ring by ring
- 0–1 km52%
- 1–3 km30%
- 3–6 km37%
- 6–10 km45%
What covers the land (1–3 km)
- Trees30%
- Grassland1%
- Water12%
- Bare ground0%
- Cropland1%
- Built-up56%
ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.
Who lives here
298 species recorded.
The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.
VU
Open records within 2 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.
In numbers
The forest, measured.
Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).
- 32%Treesof the land within 3 km
- 51%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
- 298Speciesrecorded more than once within 2 km
When to walk
Best for walking from December to January.
How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.
- Jan10°13 mm
- Feb14°20 mm
- Mar20°31 mm
- Apr24°50 mm
- May26°144 mm
- Jun27°231 mm
- Jul26°333 mm
- Aug26°308 mm
- Sep25°259 mm
- Oct22°146 mm
- Nov17°22 mm
- Dec11°9 mm
- Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
- Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
- Rain: monthly total.
The place
The Great Banyan.
Individual banyan trees
The Great Banyan is a notable tree in India.
Seen from space, 32% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 51% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.
298 species have been recorded around it: 138 plants, 6 fungi, 153 birds and 1 mammals.
The most recorded plants are: Chinese violet, Turkey berry and Indian laurel.
The best time to walk is from December to January.
Get there and walk
- The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkataplace to stay · 6.5 km · 156 within 10 km
- Howrahnearest town · 3.7 km in a straight line
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 19 km in a straight lineCar hire at CCU airport (Kolkata)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The forest and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 1named and notable trees within 6 kmThe Great Banyan Tree
- 1shelters and huts within 6 km
- 2car parks within 3 km
- 156places to stay within 10 kmThe Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata, Fairlawn Hotel, Lytton Hotel and 153 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- marked trails within 5 km
- picnic sites within 4 km
- viewpoints within 5 km
- visitor centres within 6 km
- campsites within 10 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
Around The Great Banyan.
The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.
Lakeyas1 lakes within 15 km
Darkskyas2 dark-sky places within 30 km
Viewyas1 viewpoints within 15 kmComing soon
Riveryasthe river nearbyFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The forest, as people saw it.
Other forests nearby.
The Great Banyan
India
- 39Forestyas Score
- 32%Trees
- 51%Wild
- 298Species
Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden
India · 0 km
- 42Forestyas Score
- 33%Trees
- 51%Wild
- 298Species
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q2509765) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Land cover | ESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0 |
| Species | 20,531 open records within 2 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only) |
| See these records | gbif.org |
| Names and photos | Wikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Temperature and rain | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Lakeyas, Darkskyas, Viewyas, Birdyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit 
waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit 
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit 
caves
Every cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skies
Where the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit viewpoints
Every viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit 
birdwatching
Every bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit 
forests
Every forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.You are here