Contribution through Bupa Healthy Cities Challenge to support planting of 30,000 native trees and shrubs across 12 sites
NEW DELHI (India CSR): Niva Bupa Health Insurance, as part of the Bupa Healthy Cities Challenge, has contributed over INR 1.27 crore (equivalent to £100,000) towards the Gurugram Urban Forest Regeneration Initiative, a three-year ecological restoration programme aimed at creating greener and more resilient urban communities.
The contribution, supported through the Bupa Foundation, will fund the regeneration of degraded and underutilised urban and peri-urban landscapes in Gurugram. The initiative will establish more than 30,000 native trees and shrubs across a minimum of 12 strategically identified sites, spanning approximately 15–18 acres. The programme will focus on native vegetation, ecological restoration and community participation, with the objective of supporting biodiversity, climate resilience and the wellbeing of local communities.
The contribution was made as part of the Bupa Healthy Cities Challenge, a global initiative that connects physical activity with positive environmental action. As part of the challenge in India, Niva Bupa encouraged participants to target 10,000 steps a day with an overall India target of 5 million steps.
The campaign went beyond a single event or location, with Niva Bupa teams across the country organising local walks and activities throughout the month of September to encourage participation and make movement a part of everyday life. Employees and participants came together across diverse locations—from the streets of Kolkata, Guwahati, Kanpur, Aligarh and Varanasi to Nellore, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Ranchi and Allahabad. Activities also took participants to iconic and natural settings, including Gandhi Maidan in Patna, the Taj Mahal in Agra, the beaches of Puducherry and a national park in Jim Corbett.
The campaign culminated in one of the key public activations in Delhi, Walk for Healthy Cities, held on September 27 at Vinay Marg Sports Complex, with tennis champion Sania Mirza. The event marked the relaunch of Niva Bupa’s earlier Walk for Health initiative, reimagined to connect personal health with the health and sustainability of urban communities.
Commenting on the initiative, Nimish Agrawal, Director, Digital Business Unit & Chief Marketing Officer, Niva Bupa Health Insurance, said, “At Niva Bupa, we believe that healthier living extends beyond individual choices to the environments and communities we are part of. The contribution of over INR 1.27 crore towards the Gurugram Urban Forest Regeneration Initiative brings together two important dimensions of wellbeing—people and the planet. Through Walk for Healthy Cities and the Healthy Cities Challenge, we wanted to demonstrate how everyday actions such as walking can become part of a larger collective effort. We hope this initiative encourages more people to stay active while contributing to greener and healthier communities.”
From everyday movement to environmental impact
The Bupa Healthy Cities Challenge is designed to encourage people to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines while supporting nature-based projects in cities. The initiative connects the collective movement of participants with funding for projects that contribute to greener and more sustainable urban environments.
In India, the programme is being implemented with the support of Bupa Foundation in collaboration with IORA Ecological Solutions, an environmental advisory organisation with expertise across climate policy and finance, scientific research and natural resource conservation.
The Gurugram Urban Forest Regeneration Initiative is a three-year, science-backed and community-anchored ecological restoration programme. It will seek to restore degraded urban and peri-urban landscapes through the use of native vegetation and community participation.
The initiative represents the broader philosophy behind the Healthy Cities challenge: physical activity does not have to be an isolated individual pursuit—it can become a vehicle for community participation and environmental action.
For Niva Bupa, the campaign also builds on its broader commitment to promoting preventive health and wellness. As a health insurer, the company believes that creating awareness around healthy behaviours and enabling people to make healthier choices is an important part of contributing to overall wellbeing.
Through the month-long campaign, Healthy Cities brought together people across geographies around a shared objective—to move more, live healthier and contribute towards greener, more resilient cities.
The Niva Bupa
Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company Limited is a Public Listed Company on Stock exchange(s). The company’s purpose is to give every Indian the confidence to access the best healthcare. It intends to play the role of an enabler in the lives of its customers and help them live life without constraints. This is reflected in its brand philosophy – ‘Zindagi Ko Claim Kar Le’.
As of June 30, 2026, Niva Bupa had over 210 physical branches across India. It additionally offers health insurance through its ecosystem partners including 2.5 Lakh agents, over 600 brokers, and over 130 Banca & Other Corporate Agency Partners. The company currently covers over 26 million lives and has over 16,000 providers, Annual Health Checkup Centres, Pre Policy Medical Checkup Centres and others empanelled in its hospital network.
Niva Bupa has maintained a claim settlement ratio of over 90% consistently over the past five financial years, closing FY26 with a claim settlement ratio of 94.4%. With an employee base of over 10,500 people, the company is a certified Great Place to Work six times in a row.
