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Take a walk in Delhi in May, and you’ll notice the heat rising from the pavement even after dark. The air hangs heavy between the concrete buildings. In Bengaluru, people who once needed sweaters in the mornings now sweat through the night, since urban forests that once cooled the city have been replaced by new construction. In Hyderabad, students protested in April 2025 when 400 acres of green land were cleared for an IT park, a conflict that ultimately reached the Supreme Court.
These events are not happening in isolation. They are part of a bigger crisis across urban India: our cities are losing green spaces faster than they can be replaced, and the impact is now clear to everyone.
The numbers tell the story. A 2024 study in Heliyon found that Delhi’s built-up area grew from 7.67 per cent in 1977 to 38.28 per cent by 2014 and could reach 53.83 per cent by 2030, largely replacing farmland and forests. Another review showed that urban wetlands can cool nearby areas by about 4.7-4.9°C, and street trees lower air temperatures by about 3.8°C on average. The 2025 Lancet Countdown Report on India found that extreme heat in 2024 resulted in the loss of 247 billion potential labour hours and an economic loss of US$ 194 billion. Urban India is not just getting hotter; it is also losing wealth.
Solutions exist. Now, India needs a way to put them into action.
I work as a Community Woodland Officer with North East Community Forest in England, one of 15 Community Forests in the country. A Community Forest is not just a traditional forest. It includes urban neighbourhoods, farmland, old industrial sites, and the green spaces in between, all focused on planting trees and making green spaces accessible. When these forests began in the early 1990s, the average canopy cover was only 6.9 per cent, much lower than England’s national average. These areas were chosen because they needed trees the most. Before moving to the UK, I worked in India’s forestry and highway greening sector, including at the National Highways Authority of India. This background helps me compare how both countries address the same challenge.
In the UK, new green infrastructure is a central part of development, not something added at the end. It is funded, planned, professionally designed, and managed for the long term with support from the central government. Programs like Trees for Climate cover every stage of a project, from early studies and surveys to land purchase, design, community involvement, planting, and 15 years of post-planting care. Fifteen years of management is standard practice.
What makes this model different is the support it gives to landowners and farmers. Creating new woodlands, orchards, or hedgerows can be costly, but under the Trees for Climate program, farmers and private landowners pay nothing. All costs for surveys, design, planting, and 15 years of management are covered. The grant process is simple: landowners reach out to their local Community Forest, and the team guides them through each step. Planting trees becomes a good business decision, not just the right thing to do.
Before planting any trees, the site is carefully studied. Archaeological records are checked, ecological surveys are carried out, and environmental impact assessments are prepared. The goal is always to make sure the project suits the land and does not harm it.
The results speak for themselves. Since 2020, more than 8 million trees have been planted across England’s 15 Community Forests, creating over 5,500 hectares of new woodland and hedgerows. Independent studies show that for every £1 the government invests, there is £8 in economic benefit. My own community forest has added over 500 hectares of green cover, including woodlands, orchards, hedgerows, wetlands, and street trees in some of England’s most industrialised areas.
But what really makes England’s Community Forests special is not just the funding. It’s the people who take part.
In just the 2024/25 season, 19,159 local people took part in planting and caring for the 15 forests. At our Milkwellburn woodland project, 168 volunteers gave over 840 hours in one season. These volunteers included local residents, school groups, young people interested in nature, and retired professionals. They came to plant trees and left feeling connected to the land they helped shape. Many came back, and some even became interested in careers in landscape architecture, ecology, or conservation.
This kind of multiplier effect is what India’s urban greening efforts are currently missing.
India has a huge pool of talent. Millions of young people want meaningful jobs, students want hands-on environmental education, and many citizens care about the loss of green spaces. The motivation is there. What’s missing is a clear system to turn this energy into lasting habitat creation, with trained professionals leading and volunteers helping to make it happen.
India already has the right foundations. Programs such as the National Mission for Green India, the Smart Cities Mission, and AMRUT 2.0 support urban greening. Now, what’s needed is to add the community forest model: local green groups, skilled professionals leading design, long-term funding that lasts beyond the first monsoon, and organised volunteer programs that help citizens become real caretakers of their urban spaces.
A community greening program where schoolchildren plant trees they can watch grow for years, and young graduates get hands-on experience with professionals, creates something no government grant can buy: a living culture of caring for the environment. It helps grow both careers and trees.
India does not have to look only to England for ideas. Medellín in Colombia faced a similar problem: rapid urban growth took away green spaces and raised city temperatures. In 2016, Medellín started its Green Corridors program, turning the sides of 18 roads and 12 old waterways into green strips that connect parks, hills, and public spaces. In just three years, temperatures in these areas dropped by several degrees, respiratory illnesses fell by over 30 per cent, and cycling increased by more than a third. The city trained local people, including those displaced by conflict, as professional gardeners, making the program a source of good jobs and climate resilience. Medellín won the Ashden Award for Cooling by Nature, and other cities in Colombia and South America have followed its lead. A city with real heat and resource challenges turned its concrete into a living system. India’s cities can do the same.
The technical solutions are ready too. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, nature-based solutions, urban wetlands, and green corridors are proven and can work in India. There’s no need to change existing planning systems; just improve and properly support them.
Delhi’s draft Master Plan 2041 addresses urban heat by promoting mass tree planting and green-blue infrastructure. This is a good start, but talking about it is not enough. Real progress needs funding that lasts beyond the planting season, skilled professionals to design healthy landscapes, volunteers who stay involved, and a national plan that treats green spaces as essential public infrastructure, just as important as roads and electricity.
India’s cities are at a turning point. The choices made over the next ten years will determine whether they become resilient, livable places or become harder to live in.
India has the land, the people, and the determination. Now it needs a system to bring these together and help create something lasting. The real question is not whether India can do it, but whether it will.
Brijesh Pal Yadav is a Community Woodland Officer and a landscape architecture graduate with North East Community Forest in England. He is an Associate Member of the Landscape Institute (UK) and holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Newcastle University.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth