Despite the contemporary importance of the Ridge forest to the city of Delhi as its most important ‘green lung’, the concept of urban forestry has been explored neither by urban historians studying Delhi nor by environmental historians. This article places the colonial efforts to plant a forest on the Delhi Ridge from 1883 to 1913 within the context of the gradual deforestation of the countryside around Delhi and the local colonial administration's preoccupation with encouraging arboriculture. This project of colonial forestry prioritized the needs of the white colonizers living in Delhi, while coming into conflict repeatedly with indigenous peasants. With the decision to transfer the capital to Delhi in 1911, the afforestation of the Delhi Ridge received a further stimulus. Town planners' visions of a building the capital city of New Delhi were meant to assert the grandeur of British rule through imposing buildings, with the permanence of the British in India being emphasised by the strategic location of the ruins of earlier empires within the city. The principles of English landscape gardening inspired the planning of New Delhi, with the afforestation of the Delhi Ridge being undertaken to provide a verdant backdrop for—the Government House and the Secretariat—the administrative centre of British government in India. Imperial notions of landscaping, which were central to the afforestation of the Delhi Ridge epitomised colonial rule and marginalized Indians.

Trees in cities face a severe limitation of plantable space and an exceptionally stressful growing environment. In Hong Kong, shortage of developable land has relegated trees to a lower priority and intensified urban impacts on them, relative to other cities. The vicissitudes of urban growth and trees since the founding of Hong Kong are reviewed, and eleven specific conflicts between urbanization and trees in Hong Kong are described. Redevelopment of existing buildings has raised site coverage by impervious surface and taken away ground-level planting space within and around affected lots. Infilling of relatively low-density areas mainly for government and institutional land-uses has increased development density and removed existing greenery and planting spaces. Road construction and improvement has widely damaged roadside trees and removed valuable and conspicuous greenery. Proliferation of underground utilities has fuelled the contest for usable space and precluded planting in many places. Widespread and frequent roadside trenching, associated with utilities and the laying of cable television and telecommunication networks has incurred massive root damage at roadsides. Poor soil quality commonly beset by chemical and physical constraints has caused chronic poor tree performance. Intrusion into urban parks and other green enclaves by buildings and roads has usurped the limited stock of green spaces. Encroachment into peri-urban woodlands has deprived the city of fringing mature greenery with conservation, landscape and amenity worth. Plantable space in reclaimed lands has been intensively used with inadequate allocation for trees. Protection and preservation of champion specimens has lacked statutory means and a coordinated policy. Reinforcement and demolition of stone walls has destroyed many large trees on unique mural habitats. Quality of arboricultural practice is poor, particularly in the private sector. Possible solutions to these limitations in Hong Kong are suggested, and have implications for other cities facing similar problems.