Delhi's Ridge is supposed to be the city's green lung.
Dry. Rocky. Stubborn. Ancient.
A slice of the Aravallis — older than the Himalayas — sitting right inside the Capital.
And yet, a quiet scandal has been growing there.
Literally.
Four years of plantation records. 22 species. One uncomfortable finding.
👉 Nearly 50% of the species planted in Delhi's Central Ridge are ecologically unsuitable for the terrain.
Only 7 are actual Ridge natives.
9 simply don't belong there — including 3 full-blown exotics.
6 are Indian, but from completely different forest types.
This is the twist most people miss.
Author and environmentalist Pradip Krishen put it bluntly:
"Native is a highly misleading term."
A Peepal or Banyan from the moist Yamuna khadar?
Beautiful. Iconic. Sacred.
But on the dry, rocky Ridge — wrong address.
The Ridge wants tough, drought-hardy fighters like:
What it's getting instead:
Many end up stunted. Some end up dominant. None of it is accidental.
"Contractors pick what's convenient and available in bulk," Krishen warns.
The Forest Research Institute's new decadal plan dropped a number that should stop everyone scrolling:
44.13% — the relative dominance of invasive species in parts of the Central Ridge.
Leucaena leucocephala? Regeneration stocking: 100%.
Vilayati Kikar (Prosopis juliflora) has already strangled huge stretches of the Ridge for decades.
Lantana is creeping in too.
The FRI's warning is chilling:
"Future forest composition may be entirely overtaken by invasive species if unchecked."
Delhi isn't failing because no one is planting trees.
It's failing because the wrong trees keep going into the right soil.
A plantation drive looks great on a press release.
A photo-op. A sapling. A smiling official.
But ecology doesn't care about optics.
It cares about roots, rainfall, rock, and belonging.
The Ridge isn't asking for more trees.
It's asking for the right ones.
And if Delhi keeps confusing "green" with "native," the city's oldest forest may quietly become someone else's forest entirely.
That's all for now!
