Urban Forestry in India: Development and Research Scenario

Abstract

Urban green spaces are integral components of urban ecosystems, contributing to enhanced environmental quality, quality of life and sustainable urban development. Scientific evidences in last two decades have emphasized the crucial necessity of green areas within urban social-ecological systems to ameliorate several problems of city-culture. Role of parks and gardens has become much more important in view of ever increasing population of cities, particularly in developing countries. Tangible and intangible benefits provided by these green assets are often taken for granted by the public and some city authorities. Like other developing economies, India is being urbanized at a faster pace. Generally, cities of developing countries have lower per capita availability of urban green spaces in comparison to the developed countries. Urban forestry studies, involving technical and social science aspects are lacking in developing countries, including India. Per capita availability of urban green spaces in some important cities of India and need for urban forestry research on various aspects of urban greens of the country is discussed in the article

Full text

80 Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2011
Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Urban forestry in India: development and research
scenario
Pradeep Chaudhry*
State Forest Research Institute,
Chimpu, Itanagar 791111, Arunachal Pradesh, India
E-mail: pradeepifs@yahoo.com
*Corresponding author
Vindhya P. Tewari
Institute of Wood Science and Technology,
18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bangalore 560003, India
E-mail: vptewari@yahoo.com
Abstract: Urban green spaces are integral components of urban ecosystems,
contributing to enhanced environmental quality, quality of life and sustainable
urban development. Scientific evidences in the last two decades have
emphasised the crucial necessity of green areas within urban social-ecological
systems to ameliorate several problems of city-culture. Role of parks and
gardens has become much more important in view of ever-increasing
population of cities, particularly in developing countries. Tangible and
intangible benefits provided by these green assets are often taken for granted by
the public and some city authorities. Like other developing economies, India is
being urbanised at a faster pace. Generally, cities of developing countries have
lower per capita availability of urban green spaces in comparison to the
developed countries. Urban forestry studies, involving technical and social
science aspects are lacking in developing countries, including India. Per capita
availability of urban green spaces in some important cities of India and need for
urban forestry research on various aspects of urban greens of the country is
discussed in the article.
Keywords: urban greenery; public parks; gardens; intangible benefits;
ecosystem services; developing countries; environmental quality; Chandigarh;
Gandhinagar; Bangalore; Delhi; India.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Chaudhry, P. and
Tewari, V.P. (2011) ‘Urban forestry in India: development and research
scenario’, Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.80–93.
Biographical notes: Pradeep Chaudhry is a Senior Forest Officer in the Indian
Forest Service having work experience in different forest types of India located
in the states and union-territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. He has
multidisciplinary interests and capabilities as reflected through his publications
in various international peer reviewed journals related to different fields. He
has special interest in environmental and forestry issues especially their
economic and valuation aspects.

Urban forestry in India 81
Vindhya P. Tewari is a Senior Scientist, currently working at the Institute of
Wood Science and Technology, Bangalore, India. He has worked at the
Institute of Forest Management and Yield Sciences, University of Goettingen,
Germany in the capacity of FAO Fellow and as a DAAD Fellow. His main
research fields include growth and yield modelling, forest management and
silvicultural aspects of tropical tree species. He has two edited books and more
than 50 research papers to his credit in various reputed national and
international scientific journals.
1 Introduction
The world is fast becoming an urban place as nearly two third of the world’s population
is expected to live in urban areas by 2025 (Schell and Ulijaszek, 1999). In developed
countries, the majority of the population is living currently in cities, e.g., more than 80%
of USA (Wolf, 1998) and 85% of the Australian population are living in and around
urban cities (Brack, 2002). Due to this urbanisation trend, distance between city
inhabitants and nature is increasing. Urban greenery/forestry is one of the ways to bridge
this gap between people and nature. Urban forests or urban green spaces are one of those
green infrastructures, which are more known for their non-priced benefits (like pollution
control, energy conservation, leisure/recreation, carbon sequestration, etc.) than priced
benefits in urban settings. Urban green spaces or parks/gardens contribute to an improved
quality of urban life in many ways, even though these functions are often taken for
granted by the public and city authorities, mostly in developing countries.
2 Benefits of urban forestry
Broadly speaking, urban forestry is the art, science and technology of managing trees and
forest resources in and around urban community ecosystems for physiological,
sociological, economic and aesthetic benefits trees provide for society (Miller, 1997).
Urban parks, gardens and natural landscapes provide several non-market or intangible
benefits for urban population. A literature survey reveals an earliest research paper
containing details of various experimental studies related to functions and impacts of
urban planted areas, effect of plants on climatic characteristics of a city, climatic impacts
of private planted areas around buildings, impact of green spaces on air pollution and
social functions of urban parks/gardens (Givoni, 1991). Subsequently, researchers have
described various studies conducted in the USA about the influence of urban trees and
forests on the physical and biological environment in quantitative terms (Dwyer et al.,
1992). Later on research on these aspects of multiple functions and benefits of urban
vegetation continued to grow in North America and Europe (Petit et al., 1995) and was
expressed in tangible monetary terms (Price, 2003; Nowak and Dwyer, 2000). Urban
green spaces play an important part in offering town-dwellers a more stress free
environment, irrespective of sex, age or socio-economic background (Grahn and
Stigsdotter, 2003). People are eager to access the green spaces for recreation and to
experience nature (de Groot and van den Born, 2003; Lynn and Brown, 2003).

82 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
A healthy, well managed urban forest system can provide many other benefits. For
example, it can sequester carbon dioxide emissions and produce oxygen (Jo, 2002;
Johnson and Gerhold, 2003; McPherson et al., 2005); reduce noise pollution in cities
(Fang and Ling, 2005; Bolund and Hunhammar, 1999); reduce storm water runoff (Xiao
et al., 1998); alleviate the intensity of heat island and help creating an oasis effect
(Potchter et al., 2008; Shashua-Bar et al., 2009); reduce air pollution (Nowak, 1994;
McPherson and Simpson, 1998; Jim and Wendy, 2009) and help maintain biodiversity
(Attwell, 2000). In addition to the above, proximity of public parks/gardens, natural
areas, golf courses and tree avenues can have a significant effect on the sale price of
houses (Luttik, 2000; Bolitzer and Netusil, 2000). Research in European cities has
established that green spaces provide better environment for commercial and residential
purposes (Konijnendijk, 1999, 2001).
3 Per capita availability of urban forests: some estimates
In India from ancient times, flowers and plants have been admired and cultivated. There
are many references to the Gardens in old Buddhist literature and the Sanskrit plays. But
it was from the North, Central Asia and Persia that the splendid garden traditions were
introduced in India, taking roots under various Muslim conquerors. A few surviving
Mughal gardens, at present, are found in Srinagar, Pinjore, Delhi, Agra and Allahabad
cities. Special care has been taken to include urban forestry in the city’s master plans in
respect of newly developed cities after Indian independence, e.g., Gandinagar and
Chandigarh. Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat state, leads in per capita urban
greenery (Figure 1) among Indian cities with Chandigarh taking second and Bangalore
last position (based on 2001 population census). A casual drive through Gandhinagar city
roads reveals that the variety of tree species planted on roadsides, parks/gardens/vans and
as block plantation, is less in comparison to other important Indian cities. Azadirachta
indica and Peltophorum species mainly dominate the Gandhinagar city area. Bangalore
city has scored high in terms of ‘species richness’ with the recording of 164 species in
parks, institutions, commercial and residential areas (Sudha and Ravindranath, 2000)
while Chandigarh stood second with over 100 kinds of tree species along roads, parks,
gardens and residential areas, excluding species in botanical gardens (Kohli et al., 2000).
Vegetation in Delhi consists mainly of tropical thorn forest with Prosopis juliflora being
dominant. This is a controversial species in the city forests/reserved forests from the
wildlife, mainly birds and aesthetic view point (Khera et al., 2009). However, the city has
some well maintained parks and gardens like Lodhi Garden, Mughal Garden, Deer Park,
Budha Jayanti Samarak Park, Indraprashtha Park and The Garden of Five Senses.
Overall, there are about 15,000 big and small parks/gardens in Delhi, maintained by
different agencies. The forest department of NCT, Delhi and other governmental agencies
has been responsible for increasing the green cover of the city from 30 sq kms to 300 sq
kms during last ten years, despite of acute biotic pressure (Figure 2).

Urban forestry in India 83
Figure 1 Green space per capita availability in some Indian cities (see online version for colours)

84 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
Figure 2 Change in forest and tree cover in Delhi (see online version for colours)

Urban forestry in India 85
From the global perspective, although there are wide variations both in coverage as well
as per capita availability of green spaces, cities renowned for their urban green spaces
often have 20% to 35% coverage of total geographical area and 25 to 100 m
2
urban green
space per capita. Most of the Indian cities, with the exceptions of Ganhinagar and
Chandigarh, are far behind in per capita urban forest availability in comparison to
European/Australian/US cities (Table 1). The quality of green spaces is also a
questionable issue in India. Freely roaming cattle in cities, garbage heaps in and around
green spaces and poor civic sense of the majority of the population seems to be among
the prominent reasons. However, what is needed most is not only the education of
individuals, but especially the education of municipalities regarding their duty relating to
public hygiene. Public hygiene includes solid waste disposal, basic sewage facilities,
drinking water purification and exhaust fume control in auto-taxis and public buses. A
‘carrot and stick policy’ for municipalities from local administration may help in this
direction.
Table 1 Estimates on urban green spaces/woodland cover in different regions
Region/country/city Estimated size of urban green space/woodland resource
Europe Average woodland cover of 18.5% within municipal limits of 26 large
European cities (104 m
2
/ inhabitant) (Konijnendijk, 2001, 2003)
France/Paris About 80 m
2
of urban forest per inhabitant in Greater Paris region
(Moigneu, 2001; Konijnendijk, 2003)
Great Britain Green areas cover about 14% of urban areas with 120,000 ha of
parks/gardens space (DLTR, 2002; Konijnendijk, 2003)
The Netherlands Average green space cover is about 19 % for 22 largest Dutch cities
(about 228 m
2
/inhabitant) (CBS, 1998; Konijnendijk, 2003)
Australia/Canberra Estimated crown cover of about 24 million metre square
(about 80 m
2
/inhabitant) (Brack, 2002)
India/Delhi Average tree and forest cover is about 20% of geographical area
(about 21.43 m
2
/inhabitant) (FSI, 2009)
India/Chandigarh Average tree and forest cover is about 35.7 % of geographical area
(about 56 m
2
/inhabitant) (Action Plan, 2009–2010)
India/Gandhinagar Tree and forest cover of the city is 3,256 ha (about 164 m
2
/inhabitant)
(FDG, 2008)
India/Bangalore Estimated crown cover of city is about 19.9% of geographical area
(about 16.8 m
2
/inhabitant) (Behera et al., 1985)
4 Urban greening: field examples from some Indian cities
The people in urban cities need areas resembling nature so as to have a break from their
busy, tiring, often monotonous and dreary routine. It is not possible for lower and middle
class families to go to hill stations and distant National parks frequently for enjoying
nature, hence it is the duty of local administration to bring a part of nature closer to city
residents. This can be achieved by developing parks and gardens in and around urban
cities.
New Delhi, the capital city of India, has grown to be one of the greenest capitals in
the world due to the consistent emphasis to grow more trees and strict monitoring of tree

86 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
cutting permissions. This has been possible despite the infrastructure projects which came
up due to the demands of the Commonwealth Games 2010. At present 20% of Delhi’s
geographical area is under green cover, making per capita green space availability to
around 21.43 m
2
. Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) maintains nearly 14000 parks,
New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has about 1,000 parks and gardens and Delhi
Development Authority (DDA) has many parks, city forests, biodiversity parks and other
green belts. Recently, the parks and garden society has been set up to coordinate the
greening activities in Delhi. There are nine city forests and two biodiversity parks in
Delhi. Nine more city forests are planned to be created. Still there is a need to identify
vacant areas which can be put under the green cover. Entire ridge area (about 6,000 ha)
needs to be greened. This is essential as more and more people are coming to Delhi for
employment, education and residence purposes.
To promote tree planting in urban areas, Gujarat state of India has initiated a
unique project of associating tree planting with religious practices of various
religions. According to Puranas (religious literature of Hindus), each Grah (planet),
Nakshtra (constellation) and Rashi (zodiacs) has its own favourite tree. Plantation
and protection of such trees provides positive effect and power on human life. Punit
Van (urban forest) covering six ha of land in Gandhinagar city covers all these
aspects and is a pious place for spreading message of love for trees. Total area of the
Gandhnagar capital project is 57 km
2
. By the year 2005, tree cover of the city was
57.13% of the total geographical area amounting to 32.56 km
2
. Population of the city was
around 0.2 million in 2001, resulting in per capita green space availability to more than
160 m
2
per person. Remote sensing satellite imageries were utilised by state government
for assessing changes in tree cover of the city during 1979, 1986, 1999 and 2005 (FDG,
2008). On similar concept of trees vs. religion, few more urban forests (Vans) have been
created in other cities of Gujarat state, e.g., Kailash Van near Ahmedabad city, Mangalya
Van of Ambaji city, Tirthankar Van in Mehsana district, Harihar Van of Somnath, Bhakti
Van in Chotila of Surendranagar district and Shamal Van at Shamlaji of Sabarkantha
district.
Bangalore city of India is known as the Garden City of India due to the large number
of parks and private gardens, roadside and avenue trees and the magnificent Lalbagh and
Cubbon park. The city has 705 parks spread across the city in the form of small and
medium sized parks as well as large parks. Besides these regular parks, there are around
200 open spaces and green areas, which are waiting to be developed as parks and are
without any kind of infrastructure. These are basically community amenity sites
earmarked for development of community infrastructure such as parks and gardens
(Gowda et al., 2007). Authors have given few concrete suggestions to rejuvenate urban
greens of the city, development of more regional parks of big size like that of Cubbon
park and Lal Bagh, utilising services of NGOs and multinational companies in
developing and maintaining parks and efficient use of rain water harvesting techniques.
Majority of avenue species in Bangalore city is exotic, largely planted for their high
growth rate and decorative appearance. There is need to plant trees that provide multiple
benefits, particularly in house compounds for providing edible pods, flowers, fruits,
leaves, etc., like Mangifera indica, Murraya koenigii, Moringa oleifera, Tamarindus
indica, Artocarpus integrifolia, Phyllanthus embelica and Syzygium cumini (Sudha and
Ravindranath, 2000). There is also a strong need for removal of encroachments in some
of the parks and gardens. Generally, such encroachers are politically powerful and are
bereft of environmental concerns. Estimated crown cover of the city is about 19.9% of

Urban forestry in India 87
the geographical area (Behera et al., 1985; Sudha and Ravindranath, 2000). This amounts
to per capita green space availability to around 17 m
2
.
Chandigarh city, also known as ‘city beautiful’ was the result of the partitioning of
India when the country became independent in 1947. It was built as a replacement of
Lahore city, the capital of undivided Punjab which went to Pakistan during 1947. The
construction of the city began in 1952 and was formally inaugurated by the first President
of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad on October 7, 1953. The city has more than 35% of its
geographical area under forest and tree cover, making it one of the greenest cities of India
(Action Plan, 2009–2010). Population of the city was 0.9 million in 2001, making per
capita availability of green space around 55 m
2
. The city has more than 2000 big and
small parks and gardens, besides two reserved forests and a wild life sanctuary. Important
parks/gardens are Rose Garden, Bougainvillea Garden, Garden of Fragrance, Shanti
Kunj, Hibiscus Garden, Botanical Garden and Leisure Valley. Annual ‘festival of
gardens’ is being organised every year in the month of February by tourism department
of the local administration to promote garden tourism.
5 Indian scenario in urban forestry research
A literature survey in ‘Scopus’ (http://www.scopus.com) and ‘Google Scholar’
(http://scholar.google.co.in) research databases reveals only a few research studies on
urban forestry/green spaces in India worth mentioning. These cover a narrow spectrum of
use value estimation, species richness, birds in urban green spaces/biodiversity, carbon
sequestration and a study about the Delhi ridge plantation. Though Gandhinagar city tops
in per capita availability of urban greenery in India, to our knowledge no urban forestry
study on any aspect has been reported in research journals for this city. Four important
studies have been reported for Bangalore and two relating to Delhi’s urban biodiversity.
Beneficial impacts of green areas of Bangalore on the city’s microclimate and need for a
serious rejuvenation as a centre of social activity has been stressed in a recent study by
Gowda et al. (2007). Species richness in different areas of Bangalore city has been
studied in another study, where the density and basal area in some categories of lands
such as parks, lake surroundings and institutions was found to be quite high. Authors
have argued in favour of more research for better understanding of the city forest and
stressed for planting of tree species providing multiple benefits, including carbon
sequestration (Sudha and Ravindranath, 2000). Nagendra and Gopal (2010) found the
density of street trees in Bangalore city lower than many other Asian cities, but species
diversity was quite high. SECON private limited, a Bangalore-based multidisciplinary
firm, attempted to quantify removal of particulate matter (PM) by trees at four different
locations in Bangalore city. A study found that trees were very effective in removal of
PM in the range of 10–100 micro meters, but types of tree species which are useful in
filtering removing more PM have not been mentioned. For removal of SO
2
and NO
X
pollution, more in-depth studies have been recommended (SECON, 2006). Diversity and
density of birds and woody species in urban green spaces of Delhi was evaluated in a
study jointly conducted by TERI University of New Delhi and the Department of
Environment, Government of NCT of Delhi. A total of 56 bird species was recorded in
19 sampled green spaces. The results exhibited a negative relationship between the
density of exotic woody species especially Prosopis juliflora, the most abundant woody
species in the study area and bird species diversity. Authors recommended giving

88 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
preference to native species in the management plan of the urban green spaces in place of
the exotics (Khera et al., 2009). Historical reasons and the importance of greening Delhi
ridge following the principles of English landscape gardening have been mentioned in a
review article (Mann and Sehrawat, 2009). No significant scientific findings are available
in this particular article.
Tree planting and landscaping has been an integral part of the city’s master plan.
Researchers and academicians from Punjab University, Chandigarh had undertaken some
earlier studies involving trees of the city. By the year 2000, the city was having around
100 tree species, of which 66 were avenue trees planted along roadsides, 11 were forest
trees/shrubs and remainder were trees grown on the premises of city residences (Kohli
et al., 2000). The city is also characterised by the presence of 11 gardens covering a total
area of about 400 acres and having nearly 240 types of trees (Kohli et al., 1994). Roads of
the city are mostly identified with the type of tree species, e.g., Vigyan path with Toona
ciliata, Udyog path with Swietenia mahagoni, Dakshin Marg with Terminalia arjuna. A
study was conducted during 2002–2003, mainly to assess recreational benefits (use value)
of Chandigarh city’s urban greenery from the point of view of residents and domestic
tourists using the ‘contingent valuation method’ (CVM) and ‘travel cost method’ (TCM).
The annual recreational use value of the city’s parks/gardens, boulevards, green avenues,
reserved forests and wild life sanctuary was estimated around Rs 120 million on the
2002–2003 price level (Chaudhry, 2006). The mean willingness to pay (WTP) for the
betterment of existing green landscape features of the city and for creating new
parks/gardens on the part of each reasonably earning family residing in the city was
estimated around Rs 153/-per family per year. A comparison between WTP and WTA
(willingness to accept compensation) scenario to assign a reasonable monetary value to
the recreational aspect of environmental amenities like public parks and gardens has been
presented in a study by Chaudhry et al. (2008). Reasons for careful selection of economic
valuation methods, e.g., TCM and CVM, in the context of developing countries, have
been mentioned by the researchers (Chaudhry and Tewari, 2006; Chaudhry et al., 2007).
In respect of Kerwa Forest Area (KFA) of Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh state,
ecosystem services like biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration have been
quantified. Authors have pleaded for designating KFA as forestland from its present
status of revenue land so as to provide adequate protection and providing essential
forestry expertise for its reforestation and sustainable management (Dwivedi et al., 2009).
6 Potential for improvement
Urban forests and green spaces are in the public eye. All kinds of tree-related events,
such as planting or felling, removing dangerous branches are often discussed in public
and reported by the media. For these and other reasons, urban forestry should be based on
scientifically sound principles and be transparent to the public. These objectives can be
met if options are compared and evaluated, if management is demonstrated to the media,
and if management activities are continuously monitored on a short and long-term basis
(Gadow, 2002). Developed countries are doing excellently on this front but the same is
not true in case of developing countries like India. There is a lack of a comprehensive
research database on urban forestry in the country. Reasons for this deficiency are not
difficult to find. There is inadequate financial support for urban forestry development and

Urban forestry in India 89
research work. Researchers and practitioners in this field have not been able to convince
bureaucracy-laden research funding agencies on the multiple contribution of urban
forestry to human society in a populous and developing country like India. To compete
with other kind of city expenditures/budgets, it is essential for urban forestry to raise its
public profile and publicise its multiple contributions to city dwellers at large. Another
reason is the paucity of trained and skilled researchers/scientists on different aspects of
urban forestry. Researchers are using different models/software to study comprehensive
range of ecosystem services provided by urban greenery including evapo-transpiration
cooling and microclimate amelioration, carbon dioxide sequestration and oxygen
generation, removal of gaseous and particulate pollutants and integrated assessment of
environmental benefits using CITY green software (Zhang et al., 2006; Peng et al., 2007),
urban forest effects model (UFORE) and decision support system (DISMUT) in Europe,
North America, Australia and even in a developing country like China (Nowak and
Crane, 1998; Brack, 2002). But in India these kinds of studies have not been carried out
so far. During the last fifteen years, India’s neighbour China has set an excellent example
in this field. A latest review article describes the various studies conducted on major
ecosystem services provided by urban forests in Chinese cities like Beijing, Lanzhou,
Guangzhou, Jinan, Harbin, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Dalian and Zhuhai (Jim and
Wendy, 2009). India can learn from the Chinese example because both of them are facing
almost similar urban population pressure.
Networking and international contacts proved to be crucial in urban forestry research
and development in Europe (Konijnendijk, 2003). An active programme of exchanges
and interactions could be established in India with relevant overseas universities, research
institutions and governmental agencies. Possibility of liaison and networking with
developing countries facing population pressures like India, e.g., China should also be
explored. Amelioration of global warming presents opportunities for urban forests to act
as carbon sinks and thereby could possibly be included in the potential future carbon
trade industry. Municipalities can recover costs incurred on urban forestry by trading in
carbon credits, which would accrue from reduction in greenhouse emissions.
Some academicians and forest functionaries have proposed to establish a ‘forest
regulatory authority’ for effective development of market mechanism for the ecological
services provided by Indian forests, including urban forests (Sharma et al., 2009).
Important issues to be addressed by this authority would be identification and
quantification of ecological services, identification of key beneficiaries, designing
ecological service charges for beneficiaries and other political/legal/institutional issues.
Such an authority could work properly and satisfactorily only after having results of well
designed ecosystem services-related research studies in respect of various kinds of forests
of India. In other words, deeper comprehension of forests ecosystem services could
provide plausible information for benefit-cost analysis of so called developmental
projects requiring green spaces (McPherson et al., 1999; Chen and Jim, 2008). The
ultimate purpose of taking up urban forest research studies is to address comprehensive
planning and scientific management of this valuable resource. Quantification and
valuation of ecosystem services provided by urban forestry could not only permit
comparison between alternate land-use options but also help to justify and augment
municipal investment in this green infrastructure (McPherson et al., 1997). Therefore
accumulation of scientific evidence and findings on urban forests for creating a
knowledge database is the urgent need of the hour in India. For the development of
India’s environmentally sustainable cities, a greater awareness of the ecosystem services

90 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
provided by city’s urban nature has to be fostered among political leaders, administrators
and general public.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editorial board of
Interdisciplinary Environmental Review (IER) for their valuable suggestions for the
improvement and development of the article. The authors would also like to thank
Dr. Klaus von Gadow, Professor of Forest Management at the Faculty of Forest Sciences
& Forest Ecology, George-August-University in Gottingen, Germany and an
extra-ordinary Professor at the department of Forest and Wood Sciences, Stellenbosch
University, South Africa for his advice on the development of the paper.
References
Action Plan (2009–2010) Greening Chandigarh, Annual plan, Forest Department, Chandigarh
Administration, Chandigarh.
Attwell, K. (2000) ‘Urban land resource and urban planning – case studies from Denmark’,
Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 52, Nos. 2–3, pp.145–163.
Behera, G., Nageshwara, R., Dutt P.P., Manikiam, B., Balakrishna, P., Krishnamurthy, J.,
Jagadeesh, K.M., Ganesha, R.K., Diwakar, P.G., Padmavathy, A.S. and Parvathy, R. (1985)
‘Growth of Bangalore city since 1980 based on maps and satellite imagery’, Technical report,
ISRO-EOS-TR-55-85, Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore.
Bolitzer, B. and Netusil, N.R. (2000) ‘The impact of open spaces on property values in Portland,
Oregon’, Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 59, No. 3, pp.185–193.
Bolund, P. and Hunhammar, S. (1999) ‘Ecosystem services in urban areas’, Ecological Economics,
Vol. 29, No. 2, pp.293–301.
Brack, C.L. (2002) ‘Pollution mitigation and carbon sequestration by an urban forest’,
Environmental Pollution, Vol. 116, No. 1, pp.195–200.
CBS (1998) ‘Statistisch bestand Nederlandse gemeenten’, Vol. 2, Centraal Bureau voor de
Statistiek, Voorburg/Heerlen.
Chaudhry, P. (2006) ‘Recreational use value of Chandigarh city’s urban forestry’, Current Science,
Vol. 91, No. 11, pp.1440–1441.
Chaudhry, P. and Tewari, V.P. (2006) ‘A comparison between TCM and CVM in assessing the
recreational use value of urban forestry’, International Forestry Review, Vol. 8, No. 4,
pp.439–448.
Chaudhry, P., Singh, B and Tewari, V.P. (2007) ‘Non-market economic valuation on developing
countries: role of participant observation method in CVM analysis’, Journal of Forest
Economics, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.259–275.
Chaudhry, P., Tewari, V.P. and Singh, B. (2008) ‘WTP Vs WTA for assessing the recreational
benefits of urban forests: a case from a modern and planned city of a developing country’,
Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.215–231.
Chen, W.Y. and Jim, C.Y. (2008) ‘Cost-benefit analysis of the leisure value of urban greening in
the new Chinese city of Zhuhai’, Cities, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp.298–309.
de Groot, W.T. and van den Born R.J.G. (2003) ‘Visions of nature and landscape type
preferences: an exploration in the Netherlands’, Landscape & Urban Planning, Vol. 63, No. 3,
pp.127–138.
DLTR (2002) ‘Green spaces, better places, final report of the urban green spaces taskforce’,
Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, London.

Urban forestry in India 91
Dwivedi, P., Rathore, C.S. and Dubey, Y. (2009) ‘Ecological benefits of urban forestry: the case of
Kerwa Forest Area (KFA), Bhopal, India’, Applied Geography, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 194–200.
Dwyer, J.F., McPherson, E.G., Schroeder, H.W. and Rowntree, R.A. (1992) ‘Assessing the benefits
and costs of the urban forest’, Journal of Arboriculture, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp.227–234.
Fang, C.F. and Ling, D. (2005) ‘Guidance for noise reduction provided by the tree belts’,
Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 71, No. 1, pp.29–34.
Forest Department Gujarat (FDG) (2008) ‘Tree cover assessment in Gandhinagar capital project
area, using remote sensing technology’, Report prepared by GIS Centre, Forest Department,
Gujarat, India.
FSI (2009) ‘State of forest report 2009’, pp.74–77, Forest Survey of India, Ministry of Environment
& Forests, Dehradun, India, available at http://www.fsi.nic.in/sfr_2009/delhi.pdf (accessed on
10 December 2009).
Gadow, K.v. (2002) ‘Adapting silvicultural management systems to urban forests’, Urban Forestry
& Urban Greening, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.107–113.
Givoni, B. (1991) ‘Impact of planted areas on urban environmental quality: a review’, Atmospheric
Environment, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp.289–299.
Gowda, K., Sridhara, M.V. and Rajan, S. (2007) ‘Planning and management of parks and green
areas: the case of Bangalore metropolitan area’, Management of Environmental Quality,
Vol. 19, No. 3, pp.270–282.
Grahn, P. and Stigsdotter, U.A. (2003) ‘Landscape planning and stress’, Urban Forestry & Urban
Greening, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.001–018.
Jim, C.Y. and Wendy, Y.C. (2009) ‘Ecosystem services and valuation of urban forests in China’,
Cities, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp.187–194.
Jo, H.K. (2002) ‘Impacts of urban green space on offsetting carbon emissions for middle Korea’,
Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp.115–126.
Johnson, A.D. and Gerhold, H.D. (2003) ‘Carbon storage by urban tree cultivars, in roots and
above-ground’, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp.65–72.
Khera, N., Mehta, V. and Sabata, B.C. (2009) ‘Interrelationship of birds and habitat features in
urban green spaces in Delhi, India’, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Vol. 8, No. 3,
pp.187–196.
Kohli, R.K., Arya, K.S. and Dhillon, H.S. (1994) ‘Tree directory of Chandigarh, Chandigarh,
India’, p.230, Dayanand National Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Kohli, R.K., Singh, H.P. and Batish, D.R. (2000) ‘An inventory of multipurpose avenue trees of
urban Chandigarh, India’, in Hansen, M. and Burk, T. (Eds.): Integrated Tools for Natural
Resources Inventories in the 21st Century, pp.697–704, General Technical Report NC-212,
US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station,
St. Paul, MN.
Konijnendijk, C.C. (1999) ‘Urban forestry in Europe: a comparative study of concepts, policies and
planning for forest conservation, management and development in an around major European
cities’, Doctoral dissertation, Research Notes No. 90, Faculty of Forestry, University of
Joensuu.
Konijnendijk, C.C. (2001) ‘Urban forestry in Europe’, in Palo, M., Uusivuori, J. and Mery, G.
(Eds.): World Forests, Vol. 3, pp.413–424, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Konijnendijk, C.C. (2003) ‘A decade of urban forestry in Europe’, Forest Policy and Economics,
Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.173–186.
Luttik, J. (2000) ‘The value of trees, water and open space as reflected by house prices in The
Netherlands’, Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 48, Nos. 3–4, pp.161–167.
Lynn, N.A. and Brown, R.D. (2003) ‘Effects of recreational use impacts on hiking experiences in
natural areas’, Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 64, Nos. 1–2, pp.77–87.
Mann, M. and Sehrawat, S. (2009) ‘A city with a view: the afforestation of the Delhi Ridge,
1883–1913’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp.543–570.

92 P. Chaudhry and V.P. Tewari
McPherson, E.G. and Simpson, J.R. (1998) ‘Air pollutant uptake by Sacramento’s urban forest’,
Journal of Arboriculture, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp.224–234.
McPherson, E.G., Nowak, D., Heisler, G., Grimmpnd, S., Souch, C., Grnat, R. and Rowntree, R.
(1997) ‘Quantifying urban forest structure, function and value: the Chicago urban forest
project’, Urban Ecosystems, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.49–61.
McPherson, E.G., Simpson, J.R. and Peper, P.F. (2005) ‘Municipal forest benefits and costs in five
US cities’, Journal of Forestry, Vol. 103, No. 8, pp.411–416.
McPherson, E.G., Simpson, J.R., Peper, P.J. and Xiao, Q. (1999) ‘Benefit-cost analysis of
Modesto’s municipal urban forest’, Journal of Arboriculture, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp.235–248.
Miller, R.W. (1997) Urban Forestry: Planning and Managing Urban Green Spaces, 2nd ed.,
Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.
Moigneu, T. (2001) ‘Recreation in the Paris region national forests: a priceless service which
should be costless?’, in Konijnendijk, C.C. and Flemish Forest Organisation (Eds.):
Communicating and Financing Urban Woodlands in Europe, Proceedings of the second and
third IUFRO European on Urban Forestry, 4–6 May 1999, Aarhus, Denmark and 9–12 May,
Gyarmatpuszta/Budapest, Hungary, pp.201–206.
Nagendra, H. and Gopal, D. (2010) ‘Street trees in Bangalore: density, diversity, composition and
distribution’, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.129–137.
Nowak, D.J. (1994) ‘Air pollution removal by Chicago’s urban forest’, in McPherson, E.G.,
Nowak, D.J. and Rowntree, R.A. (Eds.): Chicago’s Urban Forest Ecosystems: Results of the
Chicago’s Urban Forest Climate Project, General Technical Report NE-186, pp.63–81, US
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Research Station, St. Paul, MN.
Nowak, D.J. and Crane, D.E. (1998) ‘The urban forest effects (UFORE) model: quantifying urban
forest structure and functions’, in Hansen, M. and Burk, T. (Eds.): Proceedings Integrated
tools for Natural Resources Inventories in the 21st Century, IUFRO Conference, 16–20
August, Boise, ID, General Technical Report NC-212, US Department of Agriculture, Forest
Service, North Central Research Station, St. Paul, MN.
Nowak, D.J. and Dwyer, J.F. (2000) ‘Understanding the benefits and costs of urban forest
ecosystems’, in Kuser, J.E. (Eds.): Handbook of Urban and Community Forestry in the
Northeast, pp.11–25, Kluwer Academic, New York, NY.
Peng, L., Chen, S., Liu, Y. and Wang, J. (2007) ‘Application of CITY green model in benefit
assessment of Nanjing urban green space in carbon fixation and run off reduction’, Frontiers
of Forestry in China, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.177–182.
Petit, J., Bassert, D.L. and Kollin, C. (1995) Building Greener Neighborhoods: Trees as Part of
Plan, American Forestry Association, Washington, DC.
Potchter, O., Goldman, D., Kadish, D. and Iluz, D. (2008) ‘The oasis effect in an extremely hot and
arid climate: the case of southern Israel’, Journal of Arid Environments, Vol. 72, No. 9,
pp.1721–1733.
Price, C. (2003) ‘Quantifying the aesthetic benefits of urban forestry’, Urban Forestry & Urban
Greening, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp.123–133.
Schell, L.M. and Ulijaszek, S.J. (1999) Urbanism, Health and Human Biology in Industrialized
Countries, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
SECON (2006) ‘Urban trees in Bangalore city: literature review and pilot study on the role of trees
in mitigating air pollution and the heat island effect’, Technical report, Plot 147, 7B Road,
EPIP, Whitefield, Bangalore.
Sharma, D.K., Sinha, V., Gupta, H.S. and Sharma, A. (2009) ‘Creation of forest regulation
authority for developing effective market mechanism for the ecological services’, Paper
presented at National Forestry Conference, 9–11 November, Dehradun, India.
Shashua-Bar, L., Pearlmutter, D. and Erell, E. (2009) ‘The cooling efficiency of urban landscape
strategies in a hot dry climate’, Landscape and Urban Planning, Vol. 92, Nos. 3–4,
pp.179–186.

Urban forestry in India 93
Sudha, P. and Ravindranath, N.H. (2000) ‘A study of Bangalore urban forest’, Landscape and
Urban Planning, Vol. 47, Nos. 1–2, pp.47–63.
Wolf, K. (1998) Urban Nature Benefits: Psycho-Social Dimensions of People and Plants, Fact
Sheet # 1, Centre for Urban Horticulture, Washington.
Xiao, Q.F., McPherson, E.G., Simpson, J.R. and Ustin, S.L. (1998) ‘Rainfall interception by
Sacramento’s urban forest’, Journal of Arboriculture, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp.235–244.
Zhang, K., Zhang, J., Chen, Y. and Zhu, Y. (2006) ‘Urban greenbelt eco-service value of Hangzhou
city under effects of land use change: an evaluation with CITY green model’, Chinese Journal
of Applied Ecology, Vol. 17, No. 10, pp.1918–1922.