The Ganges-Brahmaputra... Another strange tree! Look at its peaks: one is perched on the highest summits in the world, in Nepal, and the other on the Tibetan plateau. This river seems to have grown two trunks, like a river hydra, capable of regenerating itself into new branches. A stocky shrub tormented by the icy winds of the Himalayas, it connects worlds that are polar opposites: cold high-altitude deserts, lush mangrove forests, arid plains, humid and overpopulated plains.

Every summer, the snow on the peaks melts and joins the torrential monsoon rains, particularly in Meghalaya — literally ‘the abode of clouds’ — where up to 11.8 metres of rain falls each year! These powerful waters, saturated with sediments torn from the Himalayas, feed this majestic 2.6 million km² River-Tree, one of the most fabulous on the planet.

River-tree, river-hydra: this basin is an inexhaustible source of fascination for lovers of geography and Indian culture. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and many other beliefs were born in the green branches of the Ganges. Today, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism and other religions can also be found here. A unique syncretism rooted in a land of exceptional fertility.

There are countless languages: dozens in every corner of India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Bangladesh. A vibrant, colourful foliage made up of hundreds of cultures and more than 600 millions people. This tree currently holds the record of being the most populous : it takes solid branches to achieve this!

And then there are the roots. The delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, the Sundarbans, is the largest mangrove forest in the world: a forest on roots, a veritable giant mycorrhizal system connecting the tree to the sea in a fractal, capillary, infinitely complex manner.

These two rivers are sacred, too. Every day, millions of Hindus bathe in them, leave offerings and scatter the ashes of the dead. The Ganges is a mother (Ganga Mata), the Brahmaputra a son of the god Brahma. These religions are followed every day by the large proportion of the hundred of millions who live the branches of the tree – a mere 8% of humanity. The reason it is so populous is that this tree grows on some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world, shaped by floods, mineral deposits and blessed with an ideal climate for farming. But today, this ancient tree is under threat: heat waves, water stress, pollution and rising water levels.

What tree embodies this river, if not the banyan, Ficus benghalensis? Native to the Indian subcontinent and steeped in tales and legends, it grows in a tangle of multiple trunks, without a centre, like Hinduism and its pantheon. A sacred, sprawling, living tree — just like the Brahmaputra-Ganges.

The Brahmaputra-Ganges banyan tree, Ficus Brahma-Ganga