A new study on roadside green spaces, conducted within the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus, has found that while trees help reduce air temperature by up to 2.24°C and land surface temperature by 3.80°C to 8.37°C, the carbon storage capacity of invasive trees such as subabul and vilayati kikar is far lower than that of native trees.
The study said invasive species are not only ecologically harmful but also deliver substantially lower long-term ecological benefits, and advocated the plantation of native varieties along roads.
The study, titled “Roadside green spaces: role of tree diversity in carbon storage and thermal comfort”, was conducted in April and May 2025 and published in December 2025 in the urban science journal “Discover Cities”.
It was conducted across 59 plots (10m × 5m each) covering a 5.5km stretch along four roads inside the JNU campus — the Main Gate, East Gate/Vice-Chancellor Gate, Stadium Road and Ring Road.
