Vetal Tekdi: Assessing environmental, public health benefits of Pune’s iconic urban forest

Do citizens in Pune know the value of the irreplaceable urban forest Vetal Tekdi, wondered Priti Mastakar, Professor, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics as she and students from different academic institutions collaborated for a unique valuation study of environment services of urban forests and aquifers. The study that commenced in December 2023 was completed recently with the paper being presented this July at the 20th annual environmental conference at Athens Institute in Athens, Greece. Pune has multiple urban forests, among them the well-known Vetal Tekdi, a 65-million-year-old hill situated in the heart of the city. The study looks at the value of Vetal Tekdi which provides important environmental benefits to the city. "Understanding its worth can help protect it as the city grows, " Prof Mastakar said, adding that the study assigned a monetary value to environmental services to assess their contribution to public health, focusing on the relatively under-researched area of urban forests and aquifers. Field work for the valuation was done by young environmental scientists from MIT World Peace University and documented by young economists and Mastakar and a Symbiosis School of Economics student. “Urban forests play a crucial role in city environments, providing ecological, recreational and cultural advantages to local communities. Vetal Tekdi, a significant reserved green area, exemplifies such an essential urban refuge. Renowned for its biodiversity, tranquil atmosphere, and the spiritual importance of the Vetal Baba Mandir, the Tekdi is close to the people of Pune,” Mastakar said. The urban forest gives invaluable environmental services like oxygen, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, wetlands and aquifers that provide pure water supply. The green spaces of the Tekdi give important amenity value which is the ‘Monetary Value’ of opportunities for recreation, leisure and wildlife viewing that improve physical and mental health through green exercise and visual amenity. “To this we add the cultural and heritage values of the temples,” she said, adding that measurement of value of pristine water of ancient aquifers providing water to the city, carbon sequestration, provision of oxygen, biodiversity, heritage, cultural, and amenity value was conducted. This was then documented to provide a rubric to assess the benefits as well as the costs of the environmental services lost if the forest is axed in the name of development. Methodology for this research used included existence value and use value, contingent valuation, hedonic pricing method, expert opinion and travel cost method. Willingness to pay was used for the amenity valuation. This study, based on primary research, helps further the vital valuation of urban forests which are usually undermined and sacrificed to urbanisation, researchers said. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains the measurement of growth and development. However, Environmental Economics has developed numerous tools to assess this rubric or growth against a criterion of sustainability, Prof Mastakar said and added that any development project must be subjected to an environmental cost benefit analysis, not just financial to ensure the health of the population. “The policy recommendations of the present study are that decision-makers should use this tool for selecting projects so that the invaluable environmental services should not be sacrificed to so-called development as it will hugely increase the environmental risk that will in turn escalate the health risk of the population substantially as is evident in the current milieu,” Prof Mastakar said.