Changing Pattern of Urbanization in Hisar and Its Environmental Impact

Abstract

Hisar, the administrative headquarters of Hisar district in western Haryana, has emerged over the past five decades as one of the state's fastest-growing urban centres, driven by its industrial base, educational institutions, and status as a designated counter-magnet city for the National Capital Region. This paper examines the changing pattern of urbanization in Hisar and its associated environmental consequences through a geographical lens. Census data show that Hisar district's population grew from about 15.4 lakh in 2001 to over 17.4 lakh in 2011, while satellite-based studies indicate that the built-up area within the city's rural-urban fringe expanded from roughly 18.6 square kilometres (6 per cent of the study area) in 2003 to 88.3 square kilometres (26 per cent) in 2023, accompanied by a fourfold rise in the land consumption rate between 1972 and 2017. This rapid, largely unplanned spatial expansion, concentrated along the Delhi road in the south-eastern direction, has been linked to a measurable intensification of the urban heat island effect, with minimum land surface temperature rising from about 17°C in 1991 to over 37°C in 2022, as well as to deteriorating air quality, with mean particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations far exceeding World Health Organization guidelines, particularly during the post-monsoon and winter months. The paper concludes that Hisar's urban growth trajectory, while economically significant, requires urgent planning interventions in land-use regulation, green cover restoration, and air-quality management to ensure environmentally sustainable urban development.