150 are located in one man’s intrepid quest across India
Uday Krishna Peddireddi at the base of a 500-year-old tree in Uttarakhand
Civil Society News, New Delhi
Published: May. 25, 2026 | Updated: Jun. 2, 2026
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For the past two years, Uday Krishna Peddireddi has been getting behind the wheel of his Isuzu V-Cross pick-up and going in search of ancient trees that should be saved.
He has identified 150 rare trees and placed them on a digital map of India so that they can be easily traced and their unique features remembered.
Among his finds is India’s oldest tree — a juniper that dates back 2,042 years, and is high up in Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. He spent one and a half years locating this juniper, driving from Hyderabad to Spiti twice and finally flying down to Chandigarh to reach the tree just in time before the onset of winter.
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