By Chiranjib Haldar
One major environmental offshoot of the recent mega MahaKumbh congregation with a record footfall was effective implementation of an acclaimed afforestation procedure. To curb pollution, the Uttar Pradesh government employed the popular Japanese Miyawaki technique and created veritable oxygen banks, repopulating forests in urban areas. A Ministry of Culture communiqué hailed the Prayagraj administration for oxygenating 56,000 square kilometres of urban tracts through Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki’s age-old method of restoring native urban forests which had deteriorated with the passage of time. Drawing inspiration from Japan’s venerable chinju no mori (sacred shrine forests), traditionally established around Shinto memorials, urban afforestation in India is now on a splurge. Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and other metros, a host of tier-II cities are all treading on the urban forestry bandwagon.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change (MoEFCC) had sanctioned as many as 111 Nagar Vans or city forests in the first 100 days action plan of the regime. This priority came at the right time since like other nations, combating climate change remains India’s goal. Urban afforestation includes planting multiple indigenous varieties of trees, apparently encrusted together. Using the Miyawaki mode, small, dense forest pockets, mirroring the city’s natural ecosystem reduces biodiversity loss to an extent. The Nagar Van Yojana, meant to protect forest patches in and around urban centres from encroachment also addresses environmental disquiets such as air pollution, urban heat islands, biodiversity reduction and habitat degradation. In this era of climate crises, India plans to develop 1,000 city forests by 2027 with financial support from the National Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority.
Worldwide, urban biodiversity parks are promoted as nature reserves that harbour native plants, animals and species in sustainable biological communities, rendering an ecological primer to concrete jungles. Delhi now hosts seven biodiversity parks, restored from degraded lands and serving as urban forests. For example, bungalows, residences, prestigious schools and embassies dotting the urban sprawl in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar finally lead to an iron gate beyond which lies Aravalli Biodiversity Park. Deep mining pits being reoriented into conservatories for butterflies, ferns, and orchids clinging to tree trunks showcase nature’s symbiotic relationships. To prove that the global community deeply values urban forestry solutions, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights the benefits of green roofs, green walls and blue zones, which help manage local temperatures and make city climes cooler and more liveable.
Public land, private funding and civil society expertise are in tandem creating a collaborative model for building urban forests, using Miyawaki techniques in many cases. By investing in these urban green lungs, companies are gratifying their corporate social responsibility pledges while making a longstanding obligation to environmental conservation. Urban forests are meant to work as green infrastructure providing carbon sinks, natural air purifiers and keys for heat absorption. The RPG Group is currently landscaping two urban forests in Mumbai in Malabar Hills and near Haji Ali, besides nourishing a biodiversity park in Pune named Udaan. Corporates across sectors are increasingly converting dumping yards, barren parks and sooty highway backyards into limited forests as a balm to the receding green cover. A recent United Nations Development Programme and Ministry of Environment paper cites public sector bigwigs using Miyawaki models of sapling thickening to cluster small forests in public spaces and parks across 13 major cities in India.
But, not all is hunky-dory on the Miyawaki model or the urban forestry front. Urban forests face structural challenges such as compact soils, impermeable surfaces, aggressive pruning that hinder tree growth and longevity. Sparse planting makes it difficult for Indian cities to meet the equitable nature yardstick disseminated by eminent Dutch ecologist Cecil Konijnendijk or the 3-30-300 benchmark. In Delhi or Kolkata or Mumbai, all may not always see three trees from their home, have thirty per cent tree canopy in their neighborhood and live within 300 metres of a quality green park. Although the popularity of Miyawaki forests has skyrocketed in India, some ecological restoration practitioners question the method’s applicability to our diverse ecological niches. Though dense plantations and native species are aimed at growing quasi-natural urban groves, the idea is to give the land back to nature ‘at a recurring cost’.
India’s urbanisation engine is racing at breakneck speed. According to the World Bank website, our towns and cities will be home to 600 million people by 2036 or 40 per cent of India’s total population; a frenetic rise from 31 per cent in 2011. India’s urban pockets contribute nearly 70 per cent to our gross domestic product. On the flip side of this unabated construction boom is the statistic that almost three-fourths of the global greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions are from cities and emerging hubs. Thus the Yamuna Expressway gives the impression of an endless concrete ribbon but the landscape suddenly changes to an emerald green stretch thanks to the harit upvans (green mini-forests) off the arterial highway.
Incrementing urban forests can play a crucial role in the fight against climate change. To align human creativity with nature, we cannot engineer copies of natural forests but can generate habitat based ecosystems to breathe and subsist. The government’s Nagar Van Yojana (Urban Forestry Scheme) provides financial assistance of 4 lakhs per hectare for creation and maintenance of these oxygenating pockets, encouraging involvement of citizens and other stakeholders. The scheme covers all cities with corporations, municipalities and urban local bodies with green patches ranging from 10 to 50 hectares. Even a casual stroll into any urban forest awaits a stunning experience. Outside the periphery, the city whines with fleeting sedans, hooting bikes, and lurid street vendors but inside the green lung, peace bedspreads the cleaner air. Peppered by the lenient swoosh of leaves and birdsong, here two worlds coexist: the chaos of urban life and the tranquility of nature.
(The writer is a commentator on politics and society.)