Guidelines announced for greening of cities

To curtail further urban concretisation of cities and towns in the country, the urban development ministry has issued guidelines for urban greening and landscaping across the country.

The guidelines based on a petition filed by NGO Hindustan Environment Action Group deals with water harvesting, prevention of flooding, conservation of water bodies, protection of green cover, and heritage sites while ensuring a people-centric approach.

The guidelines were in place in Delhi since 2010 but were extended to the entire country under pressure from the National Green Tribunal.

"The states adopt reckless attitude in urban planning and mindlessly concretising the cities," said Akash Vashishtha of the NGO.

"The guidelines will now be a benchmark for urban planning for the states. We now hope that there would be some curb on the indiscriminate concretisaton of our towns and cities," he added.