Rapid urbanization and large-scale infrastructure development have emerged as dominant forces reshaping natural landscapes across India. While such development is often justified in the name of economic growth and improved human living standards, it has simultaneously resulted in severe degradation, fragmentation, and loss of wildlife habitats. This paper examines the impact of urbanization and infrastructure expansion on wildlife ecosystems, tracing India’s environmental resistance movements from the Chipko Movement to the contemporary Aarey Movement, highlighting the evolving nature of environmental consciousness and legal responses.

The Chipko Movement of the 1970s marked a watershed moment in environmental activism, emphasizing community participation and ecological ethics in forest conservation. It underscored the intrinsic relationship between forests, wildlife, and human survival, challenging state-led developmental policies that prioritized commercial exploitation over ecological balance. As urban centers expanded in subsequent decades, infrastructure projects such as highways, dams, rail corridors, and metro systems increasingly intruded into forested and wildlife-rich areas, leading to habitat fragmentation, disruption of migratory routes, and increased human–wildlife conflict.

In recent times, the Aarey Movement in Mumbai reflects a shift in environmental struggles within urban spaces. The proposed development projects in the Aarey forest region revealed how urban infrastructure development directly threatens biodiversity even within metropolitan limits. The movement brought attention to the ecological importance of urban forests as critical wildlife habitats and climate regulators, while also raising questions about sustainable urban planning and environmental governance.