Few months before a strange incident gathered attention of people in Kerala when a fallen tree rised back to its real position after few days.

A peepal tree growing in a private property near a Hindu Temple fell down few months ago. People wasn’t much worried about the incident, as it was a usual happening in Kerala when large trees fell down due to its huge size & weight. It happens when the roots inside the soil is not strong enough to hold the weight of the tree. It happens frequently in those places where the soil is loose. A solid base can distribute the weight equally to all directions but a loose base fails. And it results in such disasters.

Later, the land owner and other responsible authorities decided to move the tree from the land. They planned to cut the tree into pieces and then carry the timber out to someplace. Some expert workers were hired and they started with cleaning up the small branches from the crown (top portion of the tree). They removed all the branches and marked the trunk to small pieces of 12 to 15 feet long. Before they went for their lunch, they managed to cut all the pieces except the last piece that contain the base of the tree with the roots.

Things changed after a while! The workers got stunned when they came back after lunch, watching the last piece of the tree trunk they left uncut was standing erect in the position where it grew before. That made a real shock among them. Many of them were panicked and refused to continue the work. They believed that the God was not happy in cutting the tree as it was growing near the Temple. The peepal tree is considered sacred and is grown near almost all Temples in Kerala. However the incident soon became a hot attraction and people from other parts of the state rushed to the spot. Even the media covered and broadcasted some news regarding the incident through television. Below, you can watch a video report regarding the incident shown in television by “Den News”.

The possible explanation:

If you watched the video, you can see a still photograph of the tree lying down in the ground. We can see the network of its roots and the soil stuck in between the roots (a pit is formed beneath the tree as the result) at the base. We know that the base portion of a tree trunk is heavier considered to the upper part. This weight difference and the soil stuck in between the roots made the base portion of the tree really heavy. When talking about this fallen tree, weight of the heavy base has been balanced by the long upper trunk and the crown.

If we can put the tree back into its real position (in the newly formed pit), the base portion of the tree will fit cleanly into this pit, and the grass around the border will cover the patch, leaving no trace of a fallen tree. This is what just happened here. The tree just got back into the pit somehow!

Now lets check what happened in real. The workers started by clearing the crown (cutting the branches leaving the trunk behind). As they did it, the weight of the tree reduced. When they continued their work by cutting the upper part of the trunk, the weight got reduced again. Now there wasn’t any crown or upper trunk to maintain the balance between top and bottom of the fallen tree (now there is no top at all) and the weight of the base dominated. The gravitational pull effected on the heavier portion bringing it back into the pit, keeping it steady and erect once again.  It will take some time to happen, & when it happened no workers were present at the area as they all went for their lunch! That is why this incident made no witness.

This is just a logical thinking and it may vary from the real cause. I am not forcing anyone to take it this way. Thank You