September 29, 2025: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced plans for a detailed evaluation of the city’s green cover, with the Parks Department inviting tenders for the work. This will mark the first such comprehensive assessment and will include a long-delayed census of trees across Mumbai.
The tree census, usually conducted every five years, will take place after a seven-year gap, the last being in 2018 when officials recorded 29.75 lakh trees in the city. The exercise aims to provide a clearer picture of Mumbai’s remaining greenery amid mounting urbanisation and infrastructure expansion.
Although Mumbai spans 476.24 square kilometres, precise data on its green cover remains unavailable. Over the years, large numbers of trees have been felled for construction and development projects, prompting concerns from environmentalists who warn that the city is rapidly losing its natural spaces and turning into a concrete sprawl. Officials explained that both central and state governments regularly request information on green spaces, but the absence of updated records has been a recurring problem.
The new study will assess both open green areas and the number of trees, with the data intended to guide future urban planning. While trees are routinely felled for infrastructure works, the BMC requires compensatory plantation. Earlier, the rule mandated planting three new trees for every one removed, but the policy has since been revised to ensure replacement with the same number of trees of similar age. Owing to space constraints, many new saplings are planted in suburban areas.
Officials believe the adoption of the Miyawaki plantation technique, which enables dense green patches to grow within limited urban spaces, has contributed to increasing tree numbers. At present, Mumbai has 235 parks, 480 recreation grounds, and 20,044 trees planted through traditional and Miyawaki methods.
Source: The Free Press Journal
