Tripura’s innovative projects are revitalising city life by enhancing public spaces, managing waste and tackling challenges like air pollution

About 35 per cent of India’s population lives in urban areas and is still growing rapidly. As the population of cities is ever increasing with a lot of garbage and waste found all around in most cities, the sustainable management of urban area landscapes is very crucial for better civic amenities, ambience and dealing with adapting to environmental issues like air pollution, heat waves and flooding, while also improving quality of life through green spaces, better public areas for entertainment and relaxation and promoting physical activity and mental wellbeing among residents; all while managing waste disposal and addressing the challenges of a densely populated urban environment; the situation is exacerbated during extreme temperatures in summer. Tourist attractions are essential elements of progress these days and the aesthetics of the urban environment plays a key role in attracting tourists on the one hand and improving the economic activities of the people.

During 2023-24 more than 5,45,000 tourists including 75,000 from abroad visited Tripura compared to around 3 lakh tourists in the year 2015. Agartala is the only modern yet densely populated city in Tripura and is full of tourist attractions in and around its 50 to 60-kilometre radius. The flow of tourists has been steadily increasing in the state as the infrastructure of hotels, roads and transport has been picking up very fast thanks to the proactive initiation taken by the government during the last few years. I have recently visited Tripura in the second week of February 2025 to study a few innovative steps taken by the Tripura administration. A three-dimensional approach has been adopted in beautifying the urban architecture of Agartala and other cities.

Tripura forest department has a rich tradition of embellishment of Tripura’s natural beauty through a series of parks, gardens and beautification of pavements in different parts of the state. The state government had created an agency for this purpose to further beautify the state’s already beautiful landscape to attract tourists as well as create employment opportunities for the people.

For this purpose, the state government had created an entity in the forest department’ “Tripura Park and Garden Society”. In this direction the government of India’s ‘Nagarvan- city forests’ scheme is giving a big impetus to this project not only in Tripura but also in other parts of the country.  However, the innovative ways the city’s Capital Complex, state secretariat and airport roads have been aesthetically laid out is a rare example of urban landscape management.

Most of the pavements covered by cement and bricks during summer months create heat waves in most of the cities. The forest department along with other state departments has created pyramids of flowers, crotons and indigenous tree species along with fountains and Rashi and Nakshatra forests. Most of the empty side lands along buildings and pavements were cleared of debris and planted in a pyramid shape hierarchy giving the most beautiful look in between fountain gardens were created along with plantations of medicinal plants for ex-situ conservation of these valuable plants.

The top level was occupied by the tree species and special tree grooves were also created for public awareness. For the benefit of people biodiversity and butterfly parks were created on Airport Road giving the inciting look to the tourists visiting the state. Such projects if undertaken in all cities in the country will be an excellent attempt to combat climate change, especially the heat waves engulfing most of the urban cities and landscape in recent years.

Such a project of beautification cannot be completed by a single department therefore, in this scheme public work and urban development departments also fully participated. Such innovation needs the full support of senior government functionaries. The proposal of young officers of the forest department was fully supported by the state Chief Secretary and other senior officers. The scheme is implemented through the Nagarvan scheme outside Tripura and shows cases of the unique vegetation and other cultural trends of the state. The rich floral and other bio-diversity of the state is one of the reasons for success as well as the favourable agro-climatic conditions. Similar attempts need to be made in other states of the country and focus should be on local species and with conservation value of other endangered plants.

The Rashi and Nakchatra Van were created by planting species like Chandan, Neem, Akanda, Peepal, Haritiki, Ashwagandha, Khair, Palash and Orange for Nakchatra Van. For Rashi van Jackfruit, Peepal, Ber, Bel, Jamun, Amla, Nageswar, Arjun, Mahogany, Mango, Bakul and Guava are all very useful Trees. For the long-term sustainability of landscape beautification, the constant supervision, maintenance and involvement of people is a must. These types of innovations though started in administration all over the country need to be nurtured beyond the shadow of officers involved in it once they are not in the saddle. For this, standard operating procedures must be developed along with creating a scope for public-private partnerships like in Zoos in many other states where the people adopt certain animals and fund their food and other needs so that such activities can become financially viable in the long term and also involve the public in their management.

The entry fee should be such that these endeavours become sustainable and people are willing to pay if quality service is offered as such things cannot be relied only on government funding. All such creations must be linked to environmental management for climate change as well as it is becoming a critical factor in large landscape management in the country. The need of the hour is the holistic and integrated management of urban areas of the country.

(The author is former director general, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, and former Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Resources and Forest Department, Government of Tripura; views are personal)