The Fourth Plate

You know that vegetables are good for you but you don’t eat enough for lack of time to make them. You know that walking in the park could help you reduce medication or insulin dosage but you don’t have the time to take those walks.

This is when your doctor steps in and writes you a Park Prescription. It says that you will have to walk on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 5 pm and 5.45 pm in The Friendly Neighbourhood Park for the next three months. That voice of authority supersedes all perceived and practical difficulties in including a walk in your routine. You walk in the park, initially, for three days a week. 

Soon, you’re walking everyday and over the next three reviews, your health indicators are shockingly improved. This is anything but fantastical. In some form or other, by one name or other, doctors from different parts of the world are prescribing – writing on a sheet of paper, literally, that their patients should walk in a local park, or cycle, or take hikes at specific periodicities to work with existing health issues or to stay well – physically and mentally.

In New Zealand, they’re called Green Prescriptions; in Canada, they’re Prescriptions for Nature and in the US they’re Park Prescriptions. Finland has institutionalised time in nature at a minimum recommended dosage of five hours per month. Green Social Prescribing or Nature Prescriptions is what this is called in the UK. The Japanese have anchored Forest Bathing or Shinrin-yoku in their national health programme since the early 1980s. China has Pocket Parks that promote wellness in urban spaces. 

Apparently, as the race that’s rapidly destroying the only planet we could possibly live on, humans need this official nod that’s being given to walking in the park. Now that we’ve collected ourselves abundant scientific evidence about how exactly being in nature impacts our physiology and psychology, we can safely say, “I have to go walk in the park because my doctor has prescribed it,” and go get some “green exercise,” which is now held in high esteem, being many cuts above plain old exercise.

Why doctors are prescribing time in nature

Green exercise multiplies the impact of exercising, adding magical layers of healing, repair and strength to our mental and physical health. Park prescriptions, seen in this context, are huge value additions to our much required wellness game that earlier sang of only pills for every ill. 

Curious to explore this in the Indian context, I spoke to Dr. Manasa B, Ayurveda Physician & Wellness Consultant at Prameya Health, an integrated holistic wellness centre for women, based in Bangalore. She says, “The idea of Park Prescriptions aligns beautifully with the principles of Ayurveda, which have long emphasised the healing power of nature and harmonious living with one’s environment. Ayurveda recognises that our health is deeply influenced by the desha(geography/environment), kala (season/time) and prakriti(individual constitution).” 

According to her, being in nature, as per Ayurveda, is “not a luxury but an essential part of maintaining balance.” “Ayurveda recommends daily and seasonal routines (Dinacharya and Ritucharya) like early morning walks in fresh air, exposure to the rising sun and time spent in greenery to absorb prana (life-force). Activities like walking barefoot on grass, spending time near water bodies, forest walks (vana-sevana), and sitting under specific trees were traditionally suggested for both preventive health and as part of treatment protocols to calm the mind, improve lung capacity, regulate circadian rhythms, and support emotional well-being,” she says.

She elaborates that specific trees and plants, as also elements of nature, are linked with healing specific conditions – like “moon bathing is advised for pitta balancing and sun bathing for treating obesity. Walking around the Haritaki tree (Terminalia chebula) eases constipation. Meditating under a peepal tree in the morning and evening provides superior levels of oxygenation, potentially supporting respiratory health, alertness and aiding relaxation.” 

Dr. Manasa emphasizes that “in urban Indian contexts today, reintroducing these nature prescriptions is both necessary and impactful especially for stress-related disorders, metabolic conditions, and mental health concerns, where lifestyle plays a central role.” 

Bangalore based Lifestyle Medicine (LM) Specialist, Dr. Prathima Kini reaffirms the power of going out into nature to heal from issues like diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Also with the intent of reducing stress and improving social connection, she says they “do tell patients to go out into nature. And in the context of urban living, since we may not have forests, parks are the next best alternative.”

A free prescription for lifestyle diseases

Dr. Kini points out that India is the world’s diabetes capital and soon emerging as a cancer leader too. Additionally, she says, “Half our population doesn’t know they have blood pressure. Maybe 50 years ago our main problem was starvation and infection but now we are soon catching up with the west. Though one may wonder: why should a doctor be telling me to walk in the park, isn’t it common sense, we know that common sense is so uncommon.”

Highlighting the unique demographic that coexists in India, she says, “we have the uber rich and the really poor in big numbers” and though, overall, there has been great economic growth, there is great poverty in health, she opines. Highlighting the rise of sedentary lifestyles and stress, she underlines that “this kind of prescription is really going to help. You do not have to pay for this like how you do to purchase a tablet. Most parks are free.” 

Speaking about how exactly walking in the park helps, she says, “There are dime a dozen studies on this. It reduces cortisol levels, reduces pulse rate, decreases blood pressure and improves our immune system by increasing the natural killer cells in the body. Our activity levels go up when we go out in nature. It really helps people who have cancers too. Just two hours in a week is enough.” 

Going into the sensorial benefits it brings Dr. Prathima says, “when you go out you see the blue sky and greenery. Our emotional brain is connected to sight, smell and what we hear. So, when we see different colours, shapes of leaves and take in the sounds and smells in a park, it is calming to the brain. Plants secrete phytoncides – chemicals that they give out to protect themselves, which in turn have a protective effect on humans who smell them in the forest or park. There have been many experiments done to show that nature definitely heals you better.” 

‘Nature makes us learn better’

Shylaja Sampath, a professional storyteller, who has been telling children stories in a Bangalore park for almost 5 to 6 years, shares her experience of working in the park as against indoors. “Children are very excited to come to the park for the sessions as they can also play after that. They listen with great intent. They are more relaxed and comfortable to squat, lie down and even walk about as they listen to the story,” she says, laughing and recalling that they would not be deterred from the sessions even if it rained.

She says a child recently “repeated the whole story verbatim to his parents – with sound effects and emotional tone” on the way home. There is plenty of data highlighting that nature doesn’t just make us feel better, it also makes us learn better. 

Netherlands-based Asia Naqvi regularly walks in the neighbourhood forest parks – Ockenburgh and Park Meer en Bos, simply because she “feels really good coming to the park.” Seeing how whole families come to stroll together in the forest parks on weekends, she wishes that such spaces would be created in India too. She experiences these walks as nothing short of therapeutic and reiterates that institutional support to create such spaces in India can be very enabling for people to experience more wellness. 

She envisions a park where older people can come to walk, relax and take in nature across Indian cities. While, to some extent, this does exist, we know that those green spaces are on thin ice with real estate sharks or “developers” constantly on their heels. 

If the idyllic, thickly wooded, swans gliding by kind of forest parks are not available in your neighbourhood, and your doctor is yet to write you a science or government backed park prescription, it’s a walk in the park, after all. Take it regularly and see for yourself what happens.