Every weekend, several residents of Pune in India set out to map trees along the city’s riverbanks. It’s not just a weekend hobby; it’s meant to serve as evidence to protect the city’s greenery when developmental projects come up in the area, reports contributor Stephin Thomas for Mongabay. The volunteers are from Pune River Revival, a grassroots movement that formed in response to the Pune Riverfront Development Project, which aims to create promenades, recreational spaces, and infrastructure along the Mula and Mutha rivers. The project is estimated to cost around 47 billion rupees (about $500 million). “Personally, I want to protect the environment, but without this data, we cannot even grasp how much damage has already occurred,” Raghunandan Patil, a volunteer with the group, told Mongabay. “So to any nature lover, this gives an idea on what’s left to be saved. Apart from this, tree mapping provides evidence to present to the government or authorities when advocating for sustainable alternatives.” Patil said the group had been manually mapping the trees for a while, but began doing so more systematically in 2024 using the citizen-science app iNaturalist. The app allows all the data to be easily accessible and documented in specific projects. Such detailed documentation has already helped the group highlight the importance of some areas, such as the Ram-Mula Devrai, a sacred grove located at the confluence of the Ram and Mula rivers. This small forest patch is said by local communities to be the home of a village deity.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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