Is India Ready to Protect Urban Biodiversity?

Is India Ready to Protect Urban Biodiversity?

- Sharada Balasubramanian and Rahul Chavan

Where developments in urban spaces are rapidly eating up the local biodiversity, India needs ecologically smart cities than mere smart cities to create sustainable spaces for a greener and healthier future. Creating urban forests would ensure protection of local biodiversity in cities. Sharada Balasubramanian and Rahul Chavan write about the need for urban forests in India.

Urban spaces are the core for the civilized world, as civilization growth has always been gauged by the sprawl of its urban areas. Since the first phase of urbanization in the Indus Valley Civilization, India has a long and ancient history of urban settlements. From Harappa and Mohenjo-daro to the Mauryan Empire and later in the Mughal and British East India Company periods, cities grew both in number and size. Arrival of the British in India changed the process of urbanization remarkably, with the birth of mega cities, such as Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), it is estimated that cities currently consume 75 per cent of the Earth’s resources; hence they have significant impact on biodiversity, even beyond their borders. Further, any rich city uses higher shares of natural resources outside their boundaries.