Title: Urban forestry in India: development and research scenario

Authors: Pradeep Chaudhry, Vindhya P. Tewari

Addresses: State Forest Research Institute, Chimpu, Itanagar 791111, Arunachal Pradesh, India. ' Institute of Wood Science and Technology, 18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bangalore 560003, India

Abstract: Urban green spaces are integral components of urban ecosystems, contributing to enhanced environmental quality, quality of life and sustainable urban development. Scientific evidence 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; India; urban forestry; green spaces; urban ecosystems; cities.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2011.038881

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2011 Vol.12 No.1, pp.80 - 93

Published online: 23 Sep 2014 *

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