Greenery can arrest decline of cognitive abilities

NEWDELHI: Delhi is in the midst of a tree-shock. Over 14,000 trees were being cut for creating housing for government officials and commercial properties in the heart of New Delhi, something citizens of the city joined hands to protest and stop.

Well, now there’s an additional reason to reconsider how we treat trees. A research in UK lasting 10 years by Carmen de Keijzer and team looked at the link between cognitive decline and green neighbourhoods. They gathered data thrice from 6,506 people, aged between 45 and 68 years when the study began.

The study has concluded that there was a direct correlation between cognitive decline and visual access to greenery as well as walkability within 500 metres.

The researchers pointed out that residential surrounding greenness was associated with slower decline in verbal and mathematical reasoning and verbal fluency, but not so much in short-term memory.

As far as India goes, there’s much for government, builders and homeowners to learn.

The 2011 Census also tells us we have 104 million people above the age of 60. Their mental wellbeing is key to their quality of life. The loss has an uncalculated cost.

So basically, intense greenery should be an essential part of healthy homes and workplaces.

Compensatory afforestation also isn’t fair to those who have lost their trees, because the replanting is far off. We need legislation based on this science — that is the way forward.