As India and Japan deepen cooperation in semiconductors, quantum technologies and clean energy, a collaboration on Japan’s tree-transplantation system could help reduce avoidable tree loss amid India’s infrastructure expansion.
India and Japan have taken another significant step in strengthening their strategic partnership, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announcing new initiatives in semiconductors, quantum technologies, advanced materials and energy security during the India-Japan Annual Summit.
The two leaders unveiled a joint roadmap to enhance economic security and resilient supply chains while also launching the India-Japan Bio-Gas Initiative, under which 1,000 bio-gas and organic fertiliser plants will be established across India.
The agreements reinforce growing cooperation in critical technologies that are expected to shape the future economies of both countries.
While these initiatives highlight the expanding scope of the India-Japan partnership, one proven Japanese innovation with significant environmental potential remains absent from the bilateral agenda—Nemawashi, Japan’s advanced tree-transplantation system.
India’s infrastructure and industrial expansion continues to place increasing pressure on forests. According to a Down To Earth analysis based on minutes of meetings of the Advisory Committee under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, published by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, more than 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled between July 2023 and May 2026.
Mining projects accounted for nearly 1.35 million trees, followed by 0.93 million trees linked to hydropower projects and 0.23 million trees for rehabilitation projects, together representing nearly 90 per cent of the recorded tree loss.
Against this backdrop, Nemawashi offers an opportunity worth exploring. In Japan, mature trees are relocated using scientific planning, specialised machinery and long-term post-transplant care, allowing many development projects to proceed while preserving valuable trees and urban green cover.
The approach reflects Japan’s emphasis on balancing infrastructure development with environmental stewardship.
India has undertaken tree transplantation for metro rail corridors, highways and urban redevelopment projects in several cities. However, such efforts remain limited in scale and are not supported by a uniform national framework that prioritises transplantation before felling. Survival rates also vary due to differences in planning, monitoring and post-transplant care.
As India and Japan prepare to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations next year, expanding cooperation beyond semiconductors and clean energy to include Nemawashi could strengthen the environmental dimension of the partnership.
Technology transfer, capacity building and the adoption of scientific tree-transplantation practices could help preserve mature trees that might otherwise be lost to development projects.
The India-Japan partnership has increasingly become a model for collaboration in innovation and sustainability. Adding Nemawashi to this agenda could create another meaningful avenue for cooperation—one that supports economic development while helping safeguard India’s rapidly shrinking green cover.