The widest tree in the world

The Great Banyan Tree located in Howrah, near Kolkata, India, is the widest in the world, covering over 18,918 square metres (about 1.89 hectares or 4.67 acres), about the size of a Manhattan city block. It’s got 3,600 aerial roots, is 250 years old and looks like an entire forest.

Nobody’s land

Outside of Antarctica, there’s only one other area considered to be “nobody’s land”. The area is Bir Tawil, a 2,060-square-kilometre patch of land along the border of Egypt and Sudan, which is uninhabited and claimed by neither country. Neither nation is interested in Bir Tawil simply because there’s nothing there; the land between the borders is mostly sand and sparse dry mountains.

Peru has more than 3,700 species of butterflies

Peru has more than 3,700 species of butterflies, which represents 20% of the world’s known butterfly species. (However, scientists believe that butterfly species in Peru are under-recorded and that there may be as many as 4,200 species.)

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 18th, 2023