Urban forester S.G. Neginhal succumbs to COVID-19

Many of Bengaluru’s tree-lined avenues and boulevards are his legacy

Urban forester and Indian Forest Service officer (retired) S.G. Neginhal, 93, who played a pioneering role in greening the city in the 1980s, succumbed to COVID-19 on Sunday morning. He passed away a day after his 93rd birthday on Saturday. Most of the tree-lined avenues and boulevards in Bengaluru are the legacy of Mr. Neginhal. Unhappy at the loss of green cover due to growth of the city, then chief minister R. Gundu Rao had commissioned a greening campaign. The IFS officer was brought in to lead a special cell within the Forest Department to take up the assignment in 1981. In five years, he planted over 1.5 million trees. The campaign earned him so much fame that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi got trees from Neginhal to plant in Shakti Sthal, the memorial for former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Harini Nagendra, ecologist and Professor of Sustainability at Azim Premji University, said Mr. Neginhal must be credited with pioneering citizen participation in urban forestry in the country. “He went from house to house, asking people what trees they wanted to be planted. This encouraged them to take up ownership of those trees, evident by how they have survived,” she said.