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Guwahati is confronting a dangerous environmental contradiction.
Even as the city repeatedly ranks among the world’s most polluted urban centres and hospitals report rising respiratory illnesses linked to poor air quality, large-scale tree felling continues across Assam’s capital in the name of infrastructure expansion.
The latest flashpoint is near Deepor Beel, Assam’s only Ramsar wetland site and one of the city’s most critical ecological buffers where a huge number of trees have reportedly been cut for an elevated railway corridor project. The development has triggered protests from environmentalists, residents and conservationists who warn that Guwahati is losing critical ecological buffers.
The controversy comes at a time when Guwahati’s air pollution levels remain alarming. According to IQAir’s real-time monitoring data, Guwahati recently recorded an AQI of over 110, placing it in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category. PM2.5 levels were recorded at nearly eight times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended annual limit. Earlier this year, Guwahati was also flagged among the world’s most polluted cities, with PM2.5 concentrations reportedly reaching nearly 20 times higher than WHO norms, according to experts. The consequences are increasingly visible inside hospitals. Doctors at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital recently reported a 10% rise in acute respiratory infections and allergy cases, linking the increase to worsening air quality, road dust, vehicular emissions and construction activity.
On this World Biodiversity Day, the debate around Deepor Beel has become a larger symbol of the conflict between rapid urban expansion and the protection of ecosystems that sustain Guwahati. Environmentalists say cutting mature trees in and around Guwahati only deepens the crisis.
Deepor Beel under pressure
Fresh outrage erupted after visuals circulated online showing large-scale tree cutting near Deepor Beel for an elevated railway corridor.
Activists protested at the site, arguing that the area acts as an ecological shield for Guwahati by regulating floods, supporting biodiversity and absorbing pollution. The wetland is also an elephant corridor and home to several bird species.
Government officials have defended the project, promising that 10 times the number of trees felled will be replanted. But environmental groups say compensatory plantation often fails to replace the ecological value of decades-old trees. A mature tree can take decades to provide the cooling effects, carbon absorption and habitat support that a sapling cannot immediately replicate. Environmental groups have also questioned how often compensatory plantations are monitored over the long term.
The concern is not limited to Deepor Beel.
More than one lakh trees gone
Reportedly, over one lakh mature trees have been felled in Assam over the last decade, raising serious concerns among experts over the lack of environmental impact assessments. Researchers have warned that tree removal is happening without sufficient studies on how it could worsen urban flooding, biodiversity loss and rising temperatures.
This concern has now expanded to the proposed Guwahati Ring Road Project, which is facing legal scrutiny over forest clearances and tree felling.
Environmental advocates argue that Guwahati is increasingly embracing a development model that removes natural infrastructure while spending heavily on artificial solutions for flooding, heat and pollution later.
The Dighalipukhuri memory
The public anger around tree cutting also draws from a recent emotional battle over trees at Dighalipukhuri. Earlier, concerns erupted when residents feared trees would be cut during redevelopment work around the historic waterbody.
The late singer Zubeen Garg had publicly joined the protest, voicing concern over the loss of old trees and urging authorities to protect Guwahati’s green heritage.
The issue sparked widespread public debate before the Public Works Department later clarified that no trees were cut and that 77 trees had been successfully transplanted. While that assurance eased tensions in Dighalipukhuri, activists say the situation near Deepor Beel reflects a much larger pattern.
A city heating up
Guwahati has already witnessed worsening floods, rising temperatures, shrinking wetlands and deteriorating air quality over the past decade.
Urban planners say trees remain one of the cheapest and most effective defenses against all of these crises. They absorb carbon emissions, reduce heat, trap particulate pollution, prevent soil erosion and support biodiversity. Yet they are often treated as expendable during road widening, railway expansion and real estate projects.
For many residents, the question is becoming urgent: how much ecological damage can Guwahati absorb before the consequences become irreversible?
Development is essential for a growing city. But critics argue that development without ecological planning is pushing Guwahati toward a future where cleaner air, shade and biodiversity become luxuries. And in a city already struggling to breathe, cutting down more trees may prove to be one of the costliest mistakes of all.
References:
https://www.iqair.com/in-en/india/assam/guwahati
https://www.iqair.com/in-en/india/assam/guwahati”
https://www.sentinelassam.com/more-news/editorial/tree-felling-concerns
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