Regulation of Ambient Air Temperature Through Trees: A Comparison Between Industrial and Rural Belt in the State of West Bengal, India

Industrial regions frequently exhibit higher mean air temperature compared to surrounding rural areas. This is often called Urban Heat Island (UHI) of cities and industrial zones. In this research, we present the evidence that in the state of West Bengal (India), the industrial zone like Haldia (22° 06′31.9″ N; 88° 10′19.2″ E) is experiencing higher air temperature compared to the rural area like Jhargram (22° 23′09.7″ N; 86° 52′04.6″ E) after analyzing a long-term data of more than three decades (1990–2022) through three seasons. This research also draws scientific evidence to outline the significant role of trees in regulating the ambient air temperature by using a few relevant tree-based proxies like Population Density (PD), Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index (H̅), Above Ground Biomass (AGB), and Above Ground Carbon (AGC) estimated for both the selected sites. The ambient air temperature increment at the Haldia industrial belt was 0.19 °C year−1, while for Jhargram, the increment was 0.12 °C year−1. The proxies used to score the potential of the dominant trees (common to both the sites) to regulate the near-surface air temperature demonstrated much better performance and values at Jhargram, the rural belt, compared to the port-cum- industrial complex at Haldia in the state of West Bengal.