Context: Urban forests are essential for sustainable and healthy city living, but face serious threats from unplanned urbanisation requiring legal, civic, and policy safeguards. The recent Kancha Gachibowli incident in Telangana highlighted the vulnerability of urban forests and environmentally insensitive models of urban development.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts related to initiatives to protect urban forests.Mains: Importance of urban forests.
Why do Urban Forests matter?
- Urban forests such as Kancha Gachibowli in Hyderabad, Aarey in Mumbai, Turahalli in Bengaluru, Neela Hauz and the Ridge in Delhi, and Dol Ka Baadh in Jaipur, are significant for healthy urban living. Urban forests help:
- mitigate climate change, sequester carbon and absorb pollutants.
- control stormwater runoff, erosion, and flooding.
- reduce the urban heat island effect
- coping with emissions from automobile vehicles (PM 2.5 and PM 10 pollutants)
- green spaces help the survival of endangered species.
- A study by the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service showed that one hectare of trees can remove around one ton of air pollutants. However, diminishing urban forests in India’s metropolitan cities spell severe consequences. E.g., air quality index (AQI) in Delhi at 494.
Legal and Policy Framework for Protection of Urban Forests:
Constitutional Safeguards:
- Article 21 (Right to Life): includes the Right to a healthy environment.
- Article 48A: Duty of the State to protect and improve the environment.
- Article 51A(g): Fundamental duty of citizens to protect the environment.
Government Schemes and Policies:
- National Forest Policy of 1988 and the National Mission for Green India of 2014 underlined the imperative of increasing afforestation and social forestry.
- Smart Cities Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, launched in 2015 integrated smart urban designs with ecological and social development.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) of the Government of India had rolled out the Nagar Van Yojana (urban forest scheme) in 2020 to promote and grow forest spaces in urban areas.
Nagar Van Yojana:
- Launched in 2020 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) of the Government of India.
- Objective: To promote and grow forest spaces in urban areas.
- Target: To develop 1000 Nagar Vans by 2027 with the financial support of National Fund of National Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
- Significance: Help in protecting forest land within and around urban centers from degradation and encroachment. According to the India State of Forest Report 2023, the scheme has resulted in an increase of 1445.81 km of tree and forest cover.
Judicial Interventions:
- The landmark Godavarman case in 1996 broadened the definition of forests to enhance the protection of urban greenery.
- In 2015, the Delhi High Court directed the Delhi government to notify and protect the Delhi Ridge, also known as the Aravalli leopard wildlife corridor.
- Similarly, the SC issued a stay order on the tree felling in Aarey in Mumbai in 2020 in response to the petitions by the citizens who conducted the Save Aarey Forest movement.
Threat to urban forests is a challenge to our biomedical, social, and cultural well-being. Urban forests are not just patches of greenery but life-sustaining ecosystems which need sustained preservation.