With India facing extreme weather events, govt plans to focus on urban forests in its 100-day agenda

The move comes in the backdrop of an extreme heat wave across large parts of India this summer before the monsoon arrived. Plus, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has raised the prospect of 2024 being the warmest year on record globally.

Under the Nagar Van Yojana (NVY) scheme, which was launched in 2020, the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) plans to promote urban biodiversity to mitigate pollution, provide cleaner air, reduce noise, and harvest water, the official added.

Further, pointing out that biodiversity will help issues such as spiralling mosquito population and monkeys moving into cities due to lack of green spaces, the official also noted that water conservation and crop production are other concern areas that can be addressed with urban forests. 

“If you look especially at South Delhi, the water table is depleting faster and many plants are needed to restore greenery," the person said. 

“For agriculture, in rural peripherals and suburban areas, there are pollination issues. If there are not enough pollinators such as bees, wasps and small mammals for cultivating crops, including horticulture crops like brinjal and okra, the crop production will be less. Around 25% of crop production is lost due to lack of enough pollinators," he added. 

Queries sent to the spokesperson and secretary of MoEFCC remained unanswered at press time.

What is the NVY?

Launched in 2020, NVY looks to create nagar vans (urban forests) by involving local communities, NGOs, educational institutions, local bodies, etc. The scheme envisages creating 1,000 such forests in cities having a municipal corporation, municipal council or urban local bodies to transform India's cities into clean, green, healthy and sustainable areas. 

Under NVY, between FY21 and FY24, 385 projects have been sanctioned and ₹240 crore has been released to states, then environment minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey said last August in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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Last month, concerned about the national capital facing an extreme heat wave recently, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas raised the tree plantation target by 20% to 45 million trees for the financial year 2024-2025. 

The renewed target came after the statutory body, CAQM, set up in 2021 to carry out air quality management, planted 36 million trees in FY24. CAQM conducts plantations in open areas in the NCR, particularly along the central verges of roads, roadsides, pathways, etc.

Not enough?

However, environmentalists say urban forestry alone is not a solution to rising heat stress. 

In addition to urban forestry, the government should develop a detailed heat and cooling action plan for cities to save lives during heat waves and to provide sustainable cooling given temperatures rose to 50°C at monitoring stations this year, Chandra Bhushan, founder-CEO of International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST), said.

“Temperature has breached the 1.5°C limit due to greenhouse gas emission and every country, including India, will have to start reducing greenhouse gas emission if we want to control temperature, which will not happen because of any intervention at the city level," the former deputy director general at the Centre for Science and Environment added. “To control temperature, greenhouse gases like carbon-dioxide must be reduced nationally."