India, April 3 -- Nearly four in every ten trees in Delhi's forests are species that don't belong there - invasive plants that have steadily choked out native growth, degraded soil and driven out wildlife. For the first time, the Capital has a scientific plan to fix that.

The Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, has prepared a ten-year working plan for Delhi's forest department that maps out how the city intends to restore its green estate - the Aravalli ridge, the Yamuna floodplain, and dozens of protected and unprotected patches across the capital - by 2036-37. The goal is to replace what has become a collection of degraded, invasive-dominated stands with functioning native forest.

The plan's central task is the removal of three...