In 2015, the Green Highway Policy was launched by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways establishing 1% of all Highway budgets to be used for roadside and median greening. During the same time states and urban local bodies, under increased pressure from citizens and central government, have similarly enacted plans around greening.
As these programs struggled to achieve the desired results, KS Gopal, Director of the Center for Environment Concerns (CEC) and an accomplished development specialist and ecologic expert began studying why our roadways and urban centers fail to regenerate even as more money and effort is spent. Despite use of species that are known for being rugged and drought resistant, there is a 40-60 per cent plant mortality.
Applying years of expertise on rural land regeneration to why urban spaces and roads keep browning, CEC is launching a pilot funded by Rainmatter Climate Foundation to create a blueprint for greening road medians and other urban and peri-urban areas. It will demonstrate that use of native species, planting patterns, better water management and community engagement can reduce cost, increase longevity, achieve a number of climate and biodiversity benefits and turn roads and cities into green oases.
The pilot will take place in or around Bangalore — sites are still being finalized - and CEC is already deep in the planning phase and in discussions about the appropriate native species both for this project and for use in other localities.
The CEC approach centers on applying and customising knowledge and best practices from rural land management to urban areas. The project will use biodiverse native species and several plant varieties that are complementary, suitable to the environment, suitable to the road condition and more robust.
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Distributing moisture at the plant root zone reduces water consumption by 40-60 per cent
