GUEST COLUMN
Ashish Garg
Dehradun, once a verdant valley teeming with rich biodiversity, has sadly witnessed a significant decline in its lush greenery especially after becoming capital of Uttarakhand. The city’s natural beauty, characterised by surrounding dense forests and vibrant flora, has given way to scattered remnants of its former glory. Rapid urbanisation and unplanned infrastructure development have taken a toll on the city’s ecological balance, leading to widespread deforestation and habitat loss. Rapid urbanisation was accelerated due to migration from other States for relishing pleasant weather of Dehradun throughout the year and also migration from within the Uttarakhand primarily due to lack of infrastructure and basic facilities in Uttarakhand hills, prevailing acute unemployment conditions and other migration related issues. As a result, over the years. Dehradun’s unique biodiversity took a toll and the threat is still looming large with many development projects in the offing in and around city.
Rapidly reducing greenery in Dehradun has caused a widespread environmental degradation such as increased pollution, with Air Quality Index hovering at more than 100 during most of the year, formation of many heat islands within the city and decreased rain water absorption causing lowering of ground water level. The once green Dehradun which could have put up a strong fight to mitigate climate change effects is now struggling to maintain its comfortable ambient temperature and experiencing heat waves, humidity and other extreme weather events. This development has also caused unprecedented sale of air conditioners in addition to significant running of air conditioning in vehicles, further emitting heat in the atmosphere. This is a recent phenomenon as Dehradun used to face short spells of summer, but never needed air conditioners for relief from temperature and humidity. These reduced green spaces have led to habitat loss for local wildlife, birds and decreased ecosystem services too.
Additionally, there have been continuous attempts and severe threats to reduce thick greenery of reserved forests either through building linear projects such as roads or other utility structures or silent encroachments without consideration for survival of wildlife. One such attempt, which got wide attention, was the recent incident of illegal construction in Khalanga reserved forest. Statistically, Forest Cover Land Surface Temperature (LST) in urban area of Dehradun has risen by 3.5 degrees Celsius from 27.5 degrees Celsius to 31 degrees Celsius with Built-up Area having grown fourfold from just four per cent in 1990 to 16.5 per cent in 2023 primarily at the expense of natural land, indicating intensifying heat-island effects due to deforestation and urbanisation. City-scale NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) which is a simple graphical indicator that can be used to analyse live green vegetation, carried out from 1999 to 2019 , indicates that High-NDVI (dense greenery) area dropped from 10 per cent (1999) to 3.7 per cent (2009) and further to 0.6 per cent (2019).
In absolute terms, around more than 18,738 trees have already been felled in and around Dehradun for major infrastructure project such as Delhi–Doon expressway, widening of Sahastradhara Road, Premnagar–Paonta highway, Purkul–Kimadi motor road, Smart City efforts and the Chamasari–Barlowganj route. And the threat does not end here. A look at a future tree felling estimation is clearly indicating that more than 60,000 trees are slated to be felled for upcoming infrastructure work, including projects like the Song dam, the Asharodi–Jhajhra road widening, the Bhaniawala–Rishikesh stretch, Raipur-Thano-Airport Road widening and the airport expansion. Urban footprint has spread into the surrounding Shivalik foothills too. From 1991 to 2018, Dehradun’s municipal area grew from 34 to 100 wards – translating into scattered settlements creeping into once-forested zones near Rajpur, Malsi and Jhajhra. Another reason for reduced greenery within Dehradun is excessive use of mechanical excavators by working agencies for laying sewer, pipelines, cables, drains etc. which are significantly damaging the roots of trees, a process termed silent erosion, which otherwise should have been done manually around the roots with due care. Coupled with all round tiling on footpaths leaving no gaps around trees is causing uprooting of trees or its weakening. During strong storms, when some of these falls causing damage to vehicles and rarely, loss of lives, the trees are blamed, leading to their further felling without probing deeper into the root cause.
There are also unwise moves by administration to convert lush green areas and orchards by land use change. A sad example is conversion of a City Forest such as Tarla Nagal once thriving with wildlife, birds and many medicinal trees, to City Park, probably for the affluent residents in posh apartments mushroomed around this forest. The irony is that MoEFCC is now insisting on creating mini forests within the city all across the nation whereas Dehradun has done the exact opposite.
Concerted efforts are needed to restore the natural splendour and preserve the environmental heritage of Dehradun valley. This requires strategic planning and a sustained approach for providing green spaces within the city by earmarking dedicated land banks to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Direct benefits of green spaces would result in effective temperature reduction since vegetation and trees can lower surface and air temperatures through evapotranspiration. As is well known, shaded surfaces can be 11-25 degrees Celsius cooler than unshaded ones. Also, there would be a definite improvement in the Air Quality Index since green spaces absorb pollutants and store carbon dioxide, Also, this vegetation will absorb and filter rainwater, reduce runoff, improve water quality and contribute to natural stormwater management.
Considering this, there is an urgent need to balance infrastructure growth with environmental conservation. In line with the 3R (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle) approach for waste management, a 3A (Avoid, Alternative & Afforestation) approach for enhancing greenery can be adopted.
To elaborate, since many residential projects are being further planned which might be avoided by reviewing the requirement of housing critically. In the garb of acute housing, there seems to be multi-possession of flats by affluent class. If deeply looked into, it might lead to inflated figures of housing requirement thus reducing land requirement.
Similarly for road projects, it seems that more and more forests are being bifurcated in the name of projected higher vehicular traffic. Sahastradhara Road trees were felled to accommodate higher vehicular traffic. Now the elevated road project over Rispana and Bindal rivers is being planned which makes one question the necessity of felling Sahastradhara Road trees. Undoubtedly, if judicious consideration is given to find better alternatives and alignments then perhaps there may be saving of substantial amounts of greenery. In case the road is not avoidable then one can consider transplanting trees with best practices in place. The past experience of transplantation in Dehradun in spite of FRI supervision was a huge failure since the best practices were not followed. While occasional success stories validate that transplantation can work, overall effectiveness in Dehradun remains dismal. Survival rates hover around 10 per cent-far below a reliable replacement method for mature trees. Only well-funded, expert-led efforts with long-term care might show higher success. Without improving these parameters, transplantation is no substitute for preserving existing trees for the long-term.
Afforestation efforts in Dehradun are underperforming in terms of actual survival. Structural issues—such as fund misuse, delays, and poor planning—are the main obstacles. However, localised initiatives and community-led efforts offer hope, demonstrating that with proper governance and citizen engagement, green cover can genuinely expand. Tightening financial controls, selecting suitable land and species, aligning with land ecology, sincerely implementing aftercare like watering, protection, and monitoring for at least 2–3 years, will help improve afforestation.
Further to reduce heat islands, more and more mini forests, parks and gardens may reduce temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celsius in their immediate surroundings. Urban forestry initiatives like planting deciduous trees or vines to the west of buildings can be most effective for cooling, especially if they shade windows and part of the building’s roofs. Green roofs and walls increase thermal insulation and can lower ambient temperature inside buildings significantly thus reducing the need for air conditioning
Tree plantation will be the best option to tackle deforestation. Further, a very important initiative which must be taken by the government in association with the Forest Research Institute, is to urgently conduct a census of all remaining trees in Dehradun so as to keep them safe from axing on flimsy grounds.
Hence, enhancing greenery in Dehradun has to be on top priority for all departments for reducing not only heat islands but also to fight climate change.
(The author is a climate change educator and founder member of EcoGroup Society, Dehradun; views are personal)
