7
Bhubaneswar, and Shillong area few green
cities of India which have a good tree cover and
natural environment
5
. Nagpur, Thiruwantipuram
and Jamshedpur also claim to be the green cities
in the country. Some of these cities look very
beautiful due to lush green premises all around
and also due to use of natural gas vehicle or
CNG to reduce the pollution. The planned
development of these cities present a picture of
cities that are very clean and green with trees,
plants, lakes and parks. Indian cities, particularly
cities and towns in Gujarat are growing at very
fast pace in terms of urbanization, technology,
infrastructure, and environment. However,
recent rate of urbanization is adversely affecting
the green cover in the urban areas.
Despite economic development, growth of
population is accompanied by growth of slum
and a large poverty stricken people. In the
scenario of deprivation greenery in the country,
the deprived sections are most affected by the
pollution, rise in temperature and degradation
of environment. Cities of Gujarat are urbanizing
at fast pace present no different picture. Even
Gandhinagar that is amongst the greenest cities
of India and Vadodara known for its green cover
are suffering and the green cover in these cities
need urgent attention.
There is no authentic information that ranks the
green cities of the world. The cities like Atlanta
in USA, Islamabad in Pakistan are normally
mentioned as green cities having a good
tree cover. The capital city of Gujarat is also
mentioned about its greenery and extent of tree
population, but in the absence of comparability
of data, it may not be appropriate to name any
city as the greenest city of the world. While
there is a need to increase green cover in urban
area, a recent study conducted by the U.S.A.
Forest Service reported that some four million
trees are disappearing from urban areas in the
U.S. each year. After examining forest and tree
coverage in 20 metropolitan areas in the USA,
researchers determined that nearly all were
shedding trees, and most were replacing them
with impervious cover like building, roads,
concrete layer over earth surface. Of the major
cities studied in the USA, the tree cover ranged
from a high of 53.9 percent in Atlanta to a low
of 9.6 percent in Denver while total impervious
cover varied from 61.1 percent in New York
City to 17.7 percent in Nashville
12,13
. The report
mentions that the city tree cover was reduced,
on average by about 0.27 percent/yr, while
impervious surfaces increased at an average rate
of about 0.31 percent/yr. In Japan, the average
of tree crown coverage was 26.74% in the urban
and sub-urban areas
17
. It could be inferred that
the total urban, suburban residential or open
space area of Japan is about 1,713km
2
. In India,
only Gandhinagar city in Gujarat is comparable
with the green city-Atlanta in the USA or other
such green city in the world.
Present green open space in South East Asian
capital cities varies considerably. Green space
has been defined as any piece of land covered
with vegetation and usually refers to tree cover,
tree groves, forest, parks, golf courses, sports
fields and other open land within the built-
up area, whether publicly accessible or not
22
.
Some green cities have 20 to 30 percent of
the total geographical area of the city under
green cover, or 15 to 25 square meter (m
2
) of
urban green open space per capita, based on
population pressure. A substantial part of this
is under tree or forest cover. Other researchers
have demonstrated a case for up to 60 m
2
per capita of green open space in an effort to
retain environmental sustainability
1, 18, 22
. World
Health Organization suggests ensuring at least a
minimum availability of 9 m
2
green open space
per city dweller. The experts in Germany, Japan
and other countries proposed a standard of 40
square meters (m²) urban green space in high
