NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Chapter 10 Felling of the Banyan Tree

Ans : Dilip Chitre’s “Felling of the Banyan Tree” contains various lines that show the felling of the banyan tree. Such as “Its scraggy aerial roots fell to the ground”; “Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge”; “Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped”; “Insects and birds began to leave the tree”; “We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter”. 

Ans : “Felling of the Banyan Tree” by Dilip Chitre provides us several instances that us about the nature and temperament of the father. The narrative tells the father was a practical man who removed all the trees from the land while they were shifting. Certain words that can capture this side of the father are- “the structures were demolished”; “but he massacred them all”; “My father ordered it to be removed”. 

Ans : According to mythology, some trees are considered sacred. There have been many beliefs neem tree, banyan, sheoga, tulsi, oudumber. The banyan tree is the most sacred of these and the removing of a banyan tree is considered to be a sin as it was supposed to be worshipped in the holy scriptures. Through the line “Trees are sacred my grandmother used to say”, the narrator is mainly referring to the religious beliefs, ideas, and faith of people mentioned in the folk tales. 

Ans : When the poet shifts to Baroda he sees a banyan tree that takes him back to the memory of the tree that his father had chopped while shifting. The memory of that banyan tree is imprinted upon him and often appears in his dreams faded and blurred. The memory of the tree grows strongly in his dreams and affects him.  The poet uses the term “grows” and “seethes”,   that the tree grows and grows with rage and anguish in an attempt to avenge her death. 

Ans : The banyan tree is beautiful in existence. The ring on the tree tells about the age of the tree, as the poet says, “The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years”.  The mysteries are revealed by shoots of trees that reached the ground.  According to ancient mythologies, there are many stories that tell about the purity of the tree. The reference of the banyan tree is also present in the Bhagavad Geeta, where Krishna said, “Of all the tree I am the banyan tree”.