Inequality of urban green spaces

The concluding part of a series looks at how India's most affluent areas are as susceptible to the same flaws as the poorest and most marginalised parts

The evidence is incontrovertible and coming from a host of studies, there are many psychological, social environmental and economic advantages of having green spaces close to human settlements. Presence of green cover reduces stress, improves a feeling of well-being, improves cortisol levels, reduces fatigue. It also improves exercise outcomes, and consequently both physical and psychological health of residents is better, merely by the presence of green spaces in the vicinity of where they live. The only area of psychological well-being where the evidence is a bit ambiguous has to do with learning levels, which have not been seen to improve substantially!
 
But green areas have many other advantages; for instance, they have a significant impact on energy costs because of their cooling effect. Not only does shade help, but the increased evaporation from trees that draw sub-surface water, fights heat islands created by roads and concrete. Finally, the consequent reduction in urban energy use can have significant impact on greenhouse gas production and emission of pollutants.
 
All of this is well known and well documented by scientific studies conducted across the world. Historically as well, trees and green spaces were quite well used by kings and emperors, not to mention during colonial times. But as we will show, Independent India also recognised this, newly built appendages to cities and newly planned cities like Chandigarh all have large areas allocated for green spaces. However, the problem is not only with what is planned, but more to do with what is not planned.
 
The map below shows this better. While the planned areas, which are either middle class or affluent, have properly earmarked green spaces, there is no such space in poor areas. Community parks and playgrounds are absent, so are trees on roadsides, and other public spaces are also sparse where some trees could be put up.
 
The development of Greater Kailash would expectedly have followed the planning norms and created enough green spaces, the public sector DDA also created decent green spaces in its residential areas, and while refugees from East Bengal were being resettled in Chittaranjan Park, green space was earmarked for them as well. Meanwhile, when the allottees in Sainik Farms cut their agriculture land into smaller pieces and sold it as residential, enough green space was, by default, created in their private gardens though there were no public spaces. But lakhs of poor settled in nearby slum-like areas in Sangam Vihar, etc. got little or no such facility. Moreover, the slum-dwellers got negligible access to green spaces in the nearby affluent areas as well. This was not so earlier. Since the 1990s, worsening fear of crime led to affluent communities putting up high fencing and gates.  Barbed wire is now a typical urban phenomenon across India.  The stated reason behind this closing-off of residential neighbourhoods is typically related to law and order, and to keep lumpen elements off residential areas. But it also closes off options for the poor, who have no such public parks in their residential areas.
 
The early planners of Delhi earmarked large tracts as urban forests and one such forest exists towards the central-eastern part of this constituency. However, even this space is open only for a few hours in the morning and evening, and too far from the slums in the southern part of this constituency.
 
In the accompanying map, we show an index of vegetation where green represents high vegetation density and red is the lowest vegetation. Since all non-green spaces in this area are constructed, effectively, red denotes constructed surface, extremely dense red coloured areas denote high construction density with no greenery. The image is based on processing satellite imagery available from Isro at the 5 metre granularity and, therefore, is able to capture small green spaces, including gardens, and also individual trees. The granularity is important because it shows that the poorest areas do not have small green spaces, whereas affluent areas are well endowed.
 
One solution to the green space problem can be implemented fairly quickly across India. Every part of urban India, including slums, has an educational institution in the vicinity.  And, many of the institutions have poorly maintained playgrounds and open spaces. Schools, especially government schools, are unable to maintain them properly for two reasons — lack of resources and lack of managerial ability. If communities and schools are empowered to directly interact with each other, they can mutually agree to use these spaces during the 5-8 pm period when the need for public parks is highest.
 
Moreover, minor investments from the communities can easily be used to both invest in these spaces and also better manage them. A step further would be for governments to also moral-suade privately-run educational institutions to contract with local communities and become public spaces for a short duration. Simple price subsidy-based mechanism, overseen by the community, can very easily be designed for this purpose. Finally, in what is proposed, no changes are required in the legal framework; the state simply needs to work better with the community. The necessary condition for all of this is to empower local communities. In Delhi and in the Greater Kailash constituency, the resident welfare associations have taken root in both affluent and poor areas. By empowering them, state and central governments can create better living conditions. In all that India needs to do, urban green spaces may seem a very low priority item.  But they are not; they work below the surface, impacting health, community strengthening and psychological well-being. A higher gross domestic product is simply an outcome of these underlying forces.  The solution to the green drought lies not in planting trees or grass, but in empowering communities.

Density of Green Spaces in Greater Kailash Constituency and Surrounding Areas

 The image is a visualisation of a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index from 5m Satellite Imagery (ratio of reflectance in near-infrared band to red band).  The green denotes green areas, including vegetation cover, whereas the red denotes constructed areas. The image is sourced from Indian Space Research Organisation. The Nielsen Micro Market Economics group’s Cellgrid Platform helps identify how the poor are squeezed into unplanned settlements that are located right next to highly affluent areas. The authors would like to thank Tisha Sehdev and Komal Nanda for analysing the imagery and estimating statistics on green cover and green spaces.

Source: Nielsen (India) Cellgrid Platform

 
Series concludes