How structural planning—not theme parks—must solve India’s urban heat crisis

Earlier this year in February, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that his government would plant three billion trees over the next five years to increase the state's green cover — an average of 600 million trees every year. Fadnavis is not alone in making such grand declarations. The Uttar Pradesh government has claimed that more than 2.4 billion saplings have been planted in the state over the past nine years. Similar ambitious announcements have also come from Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.

At a time when global temperatures are rising and India is home to most of the world’s hottest cities, such announcements appear well-intentioned and offer hope. India witnessed one of its harshest heatwave periods in 2024, with extreme temperatures sweeping across large parts of the country, particularly northern and central India. Temperatures crossed 50°C in Rajasthan and touched dangerous levels in the National Capital Region. Experts now warn that 2026 could be even harsher, with forecasts of below-normal rainfall under the influence of a possible Super El Niño event.

But does announcing tree-planting campaigns on a war footing really solve the problem? The Delhi government, too, made several ambitious promises over the years, including a pledge to plant 25 million saplings within four years. The current government has also announced plans to create 17 new urban forests and expand plantation drives using the Miyawaki technique to rapidly create dense green patches. This push for ultra-dense, fast-growing green cover is not limited to public initiatives; private real-estate builders in congested cities like Mumbai are now leveraging the exact same technique. All this is happening even as large parts of India’s urban landscape and existing forests continue to face degradation, fragmentation and encroachment.

Environmentalists and urban ecology experts argue that “plantation” and organically grown “natural forests” are not the same. A naturally evolved forest ecosystem develops over decades, regulates local temperatures, supports biodiversity and acts as a crucial defence against extreme heat. In contrast, many plantation drives focus largely on numbers. Experts who spoke to CarbonCopy said India’s worsening heatwaves and Urban Heat Island effect are symptoms of a much deeper ecological crisis — driven by unplanned urbanisation, shrinking natural ecosystems and a poor understanding of how cities interact with climate. The true fix, according to experts, lies not in how many saplings are put in the ground, but in digging deeper—prioritising the protection of surviving natural forests, rewilding degraded soil, and shifting the metric of success from trees planted to ecosystems secured.

Rising Urban Heat Island Effect in India’s Metro Cities 

In recent years, highly urbanised areas across the country have experienced higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas. This is known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect where cities experience significantly higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas, often by 1 to 7 degrees. This is caused by dense infrastructure, reduced vegetation, and human activity, cities absorb and trap more solar heat during the day and release it slower at night, making them warmer. 

Today nearly all the top 100 hottest cities are in India. A report by Delhi based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said that about “57 percent of Indian districts, home to 76 per cent of India’s total population, are currently at high to very high heat risk.”  

India’s Capital is facing this phenomenon and according to various research the temperature difference is significant. This study by New-Delhi-based Social Policy Research Foundation shows the Capital's average temperatures in some urban pockets remain 2–5°C higher than surrounding regions due to UHI effects.

Caption: Riddhi Tandon

If the Delhi-NCR region faces concrete-heavy expansion, loss of ridge forests and floodplain ecology, which results in rising “feels like” temperatures, cities like Mumbai face heat stress due to coastal humidity and mangrove destruction, which worsens heat retention and also causes flooding. Bengaluru, once known as India’s ‘Garden City’ has seen loss of lakes and tree cover where IT driven urban expansion has replaced large green landscapes. Rapid urban sprawl has increased land surface temperatures in Chennai and Hyderabad. 

Research comparing Indian metropolitan cities found that Delhi experiences substantially more heatwave events than Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. According to the study, the number of heatwave events in Delhi is 26.31%, 31.58% and 63.16% higher than Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai respectively. However, the researchers noted that, “The risk of extreme heat stress is less in Delhi because of lower relative humidity compared to other metropolitan cities although temperature is higher in this region.”

But climate change is gradually taking away that relative advantage from the national capital as rainfall patterns become increasingly erratic. The occasional showers during April and early summer may appear to provide temporary relief, but they are also increasing humidity levels at a time when heatwaves are intensifying. Experts warn that this combination of high heat and rising humidity can sharply increase the wet-bulb temperature — a critical measure that reflects the human body’s ability to cool itself through sweating.

Dr Krishna Achyutrao, Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, told this writer during the India Heat Summit organised by New Delhi-based Climate Trends that “wet heatwaves” may prove far more dangerous, particularly for people directly exposed to the sun.

“You may be happy with the rain as it may bring some relief, but I warn you that the next few days are likely to create big problems because even after a lot of sweating the body will not be able to cool itself down,” he said.

The warning becomes even more significant as meteorologists predict that 2026 could emerge as a “Super El Niño” year, potentially pushing temperatures to record levels. Experts fear below-normal rainfall and prolonged extreme heat conditions across large parts of India.

Degrading forests cause worry 

Conserving water bodies and protecting natural forests is the most effective and natural way to moderate temperatures and mitigate heat waves conditions. These are both interconnected solutions. But today, India’s metro cities are facing not only a severe water crisis, but also continued destruction and degradation of natural forests. Government data shows that in the Capital, more than 100 hectares of forest land was diverted for development in the 15 years leading up to 2023 and almost 400 hectares of land is under encroachment. 

In March this year, the Delhi government floated a tender for the “Development of Special Vans – Tirthankar Van, Ritu Van, Rashi Van and Panchvati Van” inside the ecologically sensitive Central Ridge under the West Forest Division. The proposal has triggered concern among environmentalists and urban ecology experts, who warn that altering naturally grown ridge forests in the name of themed landscaping could further weaken Delhi’s already fragile natural cooling system amid rising heatwave conditions.

In fact the health of Delhi central ridge — which stretches over 860 hectares — has already degraded as large parts of it are infested with invasive species such as Vilayati Keekar (Neltuma juliflora), Subabool (Leucanea leucocephala) and Gajar Ghaas (Parthenium hysterophorus). Studies reveal that while native trees grown in natural habitats reduce the air temperature and help to fight the heatwave conditions, these invasive species provide little ecological benefits.  

Under the above proposal to develop vans Delhi government also had planned to use two pesticides named lindane and chlorpyrifos to protect the soil from termites. After the concerns expressed by ecologists, the proposal to use these pesticides was withdrawn by the government but the five crore project will go on to build the theme parks on the ridge area. 

Experts say the decision to withdraw the proposal of using pesticides is welcome, but instead of creating forest vans, it would be better if the government focuses on removing the invasive species from the Ridge and allow a healthy forest to develop naturally.

Pradip Krishen, renowned ecologist and author of Trees of Delhi, who is also the member of several Supreme Court appointed committees for restoration, explained how Neltuma Juliflora was planted by British gardeners to make the rapid growth on the ridge without knowing that it will create such big problem in the later years.   

“Foresters have historically looked for tree species that can survive with minimal watering and maintenance. That is precisely what has happened since the colonial era. But today the real challenge is restoring the Ridge’s natural ecology — a task that requires deep ecological understanding, something the forest department unfortunately lacks,” Krishen told Carboncopy. 

Krishen, who has worked extensively on ecological restoration and rewilding in Rajasthan and Haryana, said Delhi has been attempting to “green” the Ridge for over a century, but with “consistent failures” because unsuitable species were planted using flawed methods. “The tragedy is that we still have not understood that ecological restoration is about understanding the landscape, soil, water systems and native ecology — not merely planting trees,” he said.

Experts say that a ‘native tree’ is not simply a tree native to a particular city — it is a tree adapted to the specific conditions of a particular landscape. Krishen explains that Delhi itself contains four distinct habitats, yet the forest department behaves as if one plantation formula fits all. “That is not ecological restoration; it is ecological confusion,” he said. 

Nature history writer Pranay Lal says unchecked concretisation and infrastructure expansion in cities such as Delhi have undoubtedly intensified the urban heat island effect, but warns that cosmetic greening measures and theme-based parks cannot substitute for genuine ecological planning. According to him, excessive landscaping and manicured plantations risk destroying naturally evolved ecosystems that already help regulate urban temperatures.

Lal said, “Urban infrastructure must be designed around ecology, geology and climate behaviour, not just concrete expansion. Cities need porous surfaces, protection of wetlands, native vegetation, preservation of wind corridors and planning that understands how heat moves and gets trapped. Otherwise, the current approach of quick-fix greening is merely a band-aid solution while the city continues to hemorrhage under rising heat.”

Ecological restoration practitioner and rewilder Vijay Dhasmana strongly opposes the idea of converting parts of Delhi’s Central Ridge into theme-based parks. He argues that the Ridge is not an empty urban space waiting to be redesigned, but a century-old forest ecosystem where native species, shrubs and climbers have slowly evolved despite years of ecological disturbance and invasive growth. According to him, transforming such forests into themed recreational spaces reflects a deeper misunderstanding of ecology and conservation.

“This trend that is prevalent in the country is a misplaced idea of green and heritage. We are losing biodiversity rapidly and what our country needs is tight control over protecting our wild lands and wilderness. Theme-based gardens are distractions from our decimating primary forests and biodiversity, which is so important to control temperature and heatwave impacts.”

Problem beyond capital 

This effort to reshape naturally evolved forests into manicured parks is not limited to Delhi’s Central Ridge. In the Capital itself, residents of Dwarka had earlier protested against plans to convert a forest area into a “theme park”, while in Noida, environmentalists and locals opposed the construction of a so-called “biodiversity park” over natural green spaces.

A similar debate emerged in Dehradun, where citizen groups opposed a proposed ₹282-crore recreational park inside the forested Presidential Estate area, often described as one of the city’s last remaining “green lungs”. The project includes tourism-oriented infrastructure such as boating facilities, landscaped gardens and cycling tracks inside a naturally evolved forest ecosystem.

Ira Chauhan from Citizens from Green Doon said the increasing concretisation and loss of native green cover are intensifying the urban heat island effect in Dehradun and affecting both biodiversity and quality of life. She noted that despite public assurances that only a few trees would be cut, many more were eventually felled in one of the city’s last densely green stretches, even as Dehradun recently witnessed school closures during an intense heatwave.

In western India, particularly around Mumbai, environmentalists have raised concerns over a series of infrastructure projects that could significantly erode forests, wetlands and mangroves despite intensifying heatwaves. These include the proposed Raigad-Palghar highway, which may lead to the destruction of nearly 72,000 trees and hundreds of water bodies, the felling of 1,800 trees in Nashik’s Tapovan area for the Sadhugram project, and the ₹18,000-crore Versova-Bhayandar Coastal Road that would require the cutting of around 45,000 mangroves after recently receiving judicial clearance.

“Mumbai, Pune and Navi Mumbai are all going to become much worse in the coming years,” said Stalin D, Director of Vanshakti NGO. “Removing trees at a time of rising global temperatures is like shooting yourself in the leg. But unfortunately, we seem to have set ourselves on a mission to desert not just our cities but even the countryside. Around Mumbai, it is not just the city anymore — nearly a 100-kilometre radius is being deforested.”

Miyawaki: A ‘Band-Aid’ solution? 

Not only have Indian states witnessed grand plantation announcements that often fail to align with the principles of natural ecological growth, experts point out that many cities simply do not have enough open land left for such massive drives. Mumbai is a striking example. Rapid urbanisation, shrinking open spaces and relentless infrastructure expansion have left the city with little room even for compensatory afforestation, despite thousands of trees being cut for metro lines, highways and real estate projects.

In such a scenario, forest departments and urban agencies across India have increasingly turned towards Miyawaki plantations as a quick-fix solution. The Miyawaki method, developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, involves planting dense clusters of saplings close together to create fast-growing miniature forests in small urban spaces. Governments and corporations often promote these plantations as an effective answer to declining urban greenery because they grow rapidly and produce visible results within a short period.

However, several ecologists argue that Miyawaki plantations are being used more as a cosmetic and statistical exercise than as genuine ecological restoration. They warn that such projects may help governments achieve plantation targets and create impressive records on paper, but cannot replace organically evolved forests that develop over decades and support complex biodiversity.

Lal said, “Miyawaki plantations are being treated as a shortcut to ecological restoration because governments and CSR projects want visible greenery within a year. But forests do not grow like soldiers standing in an assembly line. Real forests are layered, uneven and ecologically complex. You cannot destroy ecosystems over a hundred years and expect to recreate them overnight through dense cosmetic plantations.”

Experts say the growing dependence on rapid plantation techniques also reflects a deeper urban planning crisis, where protecting existing forests and mature trees is often considered less important than announcing new plantation targets.

What can be done? 

Heatwaves have never been officially included in India's list of nationally notified disasters under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, despite causing over 10,635 deaths between 2013–2022. In the Union Budget 2026-27 speech (February 1, 2026), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the 16th Finance Commission has recommended including both lightning and heatwaves in the list of nationally notified disasters. On May 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also cautioned Indians to be careful and take precautionary measures.

This recommendation, if accepted and implemented, would enable states to use State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) money for heatwave and lightning relief, opening up funding for heat resilience building. Previously, the 15th Finance Commission had declined to include heatwaves, though it allowed states to use up to 10% of SDRF for "local disasters" like heatwaves. In July 2024, the Centre explicitly stated it had no plans to include heatwaves as a notified disaster

In such a scenario, conservation of forests and water bodies, along with increasing urban green cover through native species, is widely seen as an important strategy to reduce the urban heat island effect. However, experts caution that in an era of intensifying climate extremes, planting trees and creating parks alone will not be enough to cool rapidly heating cities.

Vishwas Chitale who leads the climate resilience team at CEEW, said that while urban forests, gardens and water bodies do contribute to local cooling, cities need to move towards deeper structural changes in the way urban spaces are built and managed.

“If you have some sort of greenery, garden, urban forest or water body in the city they definitely help to add some cooling effect, but it may not be sufficient. In long term and effective mitigation some key actions should focus on how we bring sustainable building material or implement Energy Conservation Build Codes. That is important.”

Pranay Lal said a much deeper understanding of the science of urban ecology and heat behaviour is necessary if cities are to meaningfully tackle heatwaves.

“You cannot fight heatwaves simply by planting a few trees or creating ornamental water bodies. Heat islands are an earth-science problem as much as an urban planning problem — involving soil moisture, rock exposure, wind flow, heat absorption and how cities are built. Many cities with parks and lakes still suffer intense heat because the deeper ecological and geological systems have been ignored.”

Dhasmana echoes a similar view. He says Delhi needs much more than plantation drives to become a livable city.

“The focus should start from making our streets pedestrian and bicycle friendly. A huge push has to be undertaken to create a public transport system and last-mile connectivity, which is missing in the city. We must let our wild areas remain wild and, at the most, do ecological restoration that mimics the natural habitats and landscape features of our land.”

Dhasmana argues that Delhi’s urban planning model itself is contributing to rising temperatures. According to him, covering drains and water bodies disrupts natural cooling systems and intensifies urban heating. He advocates reopening covered drains and transforming them into biodiversity corridors instead of treating them merely as sewage channels.

“Treat the wastewater efficiently and let it flow in the drains. Clean Yamuna and let the vegetation around it thrive. Huge chunks of land are under cricket grounds and other activities. Have a water audit of public gardens and green facilities systems in place. Open up paved or cemented areas and let the earth breathe and plants flourish in those areas,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pradip Krishen argued that restoring healthy native ecosystems inside cities can play a crucial role not only in reducing heat stress, but also in improving air quality and protecting groundwater systems. However, he warned against cosmetic greening exercises that prioritise themed landscaping over ecological restoration.

“Projects like Ritu Van or Rashi Van sound attractive, but if they ignore the natural ecology of the Ridge they become cosmetic exercises. The Ridge does not need themed gardens — it needs scientifically grounded ecological restoration,” he said.

Krishen believes that if ecological restoration is undertaken properly, Delhi’s Ridge could emerge as a rare urban ecological model in the world.

“If restored properly, Delhi’s Ridge could become one of the world’s rare examples of a natural dry forest thriving inside a national capital. It would help reduce heat stress, improve air quality and support biodiversity. But the problem is that authorities neither know how to do it correctly nor admit that they do not know.”