Microclimate-Responsive Roadside Plants for Pollution Mitigation and Greenbelt Planning

Green plants play a vital role in mitigating urban air pollution, and selecting pollution-tolerant species is essential for sustainable greenbelt development. This study evaluates 12 dominant roadside plant species from National Highway 16 (NH-16) at Kharagpur, India, using two indices: the Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) and the Anticipated Performance Index (API). Four biochemical parameters such as relative water content (RWC), leaf extract pH, ascorbic acid (AA), and total chlorophyll (TCH) were used to calculate APTI. The IIT Kharagpur campus was considered the control site to compare exposure levels and corresponding changes in plant species between the control (campus site) and polluted (roadside) environments. Duranta erecta and Neolamarckia cadamba demonstrated strong performance in APTI and API on both environments, whereas Cascabela thevetia , Albizia lebbeck etc. scored poorly. Interestingly, most species exhibited higher APTI values at the road site (mean=23.71) compared to the control site (mean=18.11), suggesting enhanced internal defence mechanisms in response to pollution stress. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model identified AA as the most influential significant predictor of APTI (β = 1.002, p