Vijayawada loses 79% green cover

School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada researchers said in a study reported on September 1 that the city’s average vegetation index fell 79% between 1990 and 2024 as built-up area expanded past 60%. The study, based on satellite imagery and ward-level environmental analysis, also found urban heat-island intensity of up to 9 degrees Celsius in some parts of the city. Wards 2, 8 and 54 were identified as hotspots with land surface temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius in several areas. The findings add local detail to a broader pattern of rapid land-cover change in Vijayawada documented in earlier planning and academic work. ### How large was the change in Vijayawada’s green cover? The 2026 SPA Vijayawada study said the city’s average vegetation index declined by 79% over 34 years, from 1990 to 2024. The same study said built-up area increased from 37% to more than 60% over that period, indicating that urban expansion replaced a substantial share of vegetated land. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) A separate 2025 geospatial study on Vijayawada’s urban growth, indexed by ScienceDirect, also found a sharp rise in built-up land between 2001 and 2023 alongside increasing land-surface temperatures. Another 2026 study indexed by ScienceDirect projected built-up area rising to 65.41% by 2050, with vegetation cover falling from 26.08% to 6.33%, reinforcing the direction of change described in the newer SPA analysis. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) ### Which parts of the city are running hottest? Wards 2, 8 and 54 emerged as thermal hotspots in the SPA Vijayawada study, which said several areas there recorded land-surface temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. The study also said urban heat-island intensity reached as much as 9 degrees Celsius in some thermally stressed locations. (sciencedirect.com) The researchers said neighborhoods with sparse vegetation, higher heat exposure and poorer air quality often overlap with densely populated and lower-income localities. That means the warming pattern is uneven across the city rather than citywide in the same measure, according to the study. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) ### What else did the researchers measure besides trees and heat? The SPA Vijayawada team said it assessed vegetation, land-surface temperature, air quality and biodiversity using satellite data spanning more than three decades. The study gave Vijayawada 32 out of 92 on the City Biodiversity Index, which it said reflected fragmented habitats and weak urban ecological conditions. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) UN-Habitat’s 2022 Sustainable City Strategy for Vijayawada described the city as growing at an average decadal rate of 23.3% in 2001-11 and said its built-up area had increased by 372% over the preceding decades, while agricultural area fell 65%. Those figures predate the new SPA study but show the scale of land conversion that city planners have been grappling with. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) ### What is the city and state doing in response? The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is working on guidelines for heat-resilient buildings and infrastructure, according to the Times of India report on the SPA study. ICLEI South Asia has separately published technical guidelines developed with VMC for heat-resilient and sustainably cooled buildings in Vijayawada, showing that the city has already begun formal work on heat-response measures. (unhabitat.org.in) The Andhra Pradesh government on June 2, 2026, issued an order creating the Andhra Pradesh Society for Greening and Reforestation for Ecological Enrichment, or AP-GREEN, and district green-cover agencies. The order said the bodies were created to raise the state’s combined forest and tree cover to 50% of its geographical area by 2047. ### Who is in charge of the state’s new greening push? (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) Konidela Nagendra Rao, also known as Nagababu, was named chairperson of AP-GREEN’s executive committee in a government order issued in August 2026. He took charge on August 28 and said Andhra Pradesh would pursue the goal of lifting green cover to 50% by 2047, according to government and local news reports. (goir.ap.gov.in) The next formal benchmark is 2047, the target year written into the June 2 government order establishing AP-GREEN. In Vijayawada, the nearer-term administrative track runs through VMC’s heat-resilient building and infrastructure guidelines and whatever ward-level planting and protection measures city officials adopt in response to the SPA study’s hotspot map. (goir.ap.gov.in) (goir.ap.gov.in)