Dear readers,

In the poem ‘Godavari’ by VV Shirwadkar, popularly known and revered by his pen name ‘Kusumagraj,’ the river asks how to move forward. Kusumagraj, among the greatest of Marathi poets, playwrights, and litterateurs, and awarded the prestigious Jnanpith and Sahitya Natak Academy awards for his stupendous work, had made Nashik – and the banks of Godavari – his home. The poem goes: 

Godavari kathavar baslo hoto ekdha,
Panyaat pahile tevha disle swatahcha chehra.
Nadi mhanali – tu hi vaahatos mazhyasarkha,
Ghava sosun pudhe jaane haach marg sange sakha. 

(Once, sitting on the banks of Godavari
I peered into the water, saw my face.
The river said – you too flow like me, 
tell me, my friend
how to endure a blow and stream forward.)

As Nashik, and the river that has defined the city for centuries, prepare to host the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in less than six months, the Godavari meanders through historical landmarks, struggling to flow in places and stagnant in others, human-caused pollution and policy-driven concretisation impeding its flow. Like it asked the poet ‘how to endure a blow and stream forward,’ it now asks the question of the Maharashtra government, the authorities in Nashik, and the people of the ancient city. Worshipped but neglected from one Kumbh Mela to the next 12 years apart, the Godavari is asking to be heard and accounted for in the city’s development, respected and restored beyond the event. Question of Cities journeys to Nashik, walks along the river banks, takes in Panchvati and Ramkund, and asks why the Godavari cannot be revived in ecologically sustainable ways.

Shilpa Dahake, Nashik-based architect and anthropologist who examined the Godavari as a dynamic socio-ecological system for her PhD, argues in the lead essay that the preparation for the Kumbh Mela is not merely a logistical exercise but also an act of (re)configuring the Godavari itself, which reflects the tensions between religiosity, urban development, and the ecological materialities of a river under stress. Recasting the Godavari as a top-down model of a ‘spiritual corridor’ erasing the local context and shifting towards a unified, monumental riverfront signals a desire for order, coherence, and global visibility. It might be the setting for the Kumbh but today’s need is to see the river as a living system that flows, floods, recedes, and regenerates. Read it here.

Nashik’s ancient mythological, historical and contemporary connection with the Godavari comes together in the Panchvati area and, within it, specifically in the Ramkund, observes QoC Architect-Illustrator Nikeita Saraf who went on a walk along the river with historian and heritage writer Ramesh Padwal, and architect and urban designer Ulka Pawar. The area with 17 kunds (reservoirs or bathing tanks) is seeing demolitions and constructions for the forthcoming Kumbh Mela, that’s expected to draw 10-12 crore pilgrims. The authorities are undertaking riverfront development, reconstructing the ghats, concretising them further, and building huge retaining walls along the river, while the construction boom ignores the red and blue flood lines. What will remain of the Godavari? Read it here.

Groundwater matters as much as the ecological health of the Godavari for water supply in Nashik, writes Prajakta Baste, PhD, architect and water expert. The over-exploitation of groundwater has led to recent water scarcity and, although the  Nashik Municipal Corporation brought in rules and regulations in the past ten years to check it, the implementation has been tardy. She suggests returning to the ancient approach – respect the river, understand how it moves, restore its natural conditions, protect its tributaries – while allowing groundwater to be recharged and not taking away the river’s land by Development Plans or policy. Read it here.

Devang Jani, a Nashik-based environmentalist who filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court in 2012 to de-concretise the kunds (reservoirs or tanks) along the Godavari river, writes about the continuing work. The 17 ancient kunds  filled naturally with water even in summer till wanton concretisation cut off the water sources; during the 2003-2004 Kumbh Mela preparations, the Aruna River, a tributary, was concretised and, eventually, a road built on it. The HC judgment paved the way for de-concretisation. Five of the 17 ancient kunds were brought back to life by 2020 by removing a staggering 3.5 lakh kilos or 165 dumpers of cement concrete; his group is working with the authorities to de-concretise the rest, he writes. Read it here.

Question of Cities speaks to the two residents and experts about the city’s relationship with the river now. The Maharashtra government has sanctioned Rs 35,000 crore to boost urban infrastructure for Kumbh and beyond, and Rs 44 crore for river ghats. But if the river is channelised and ghats constructed randomly, “you are inviting disaster,” says Rajesh Pandit, president of the Namami Goda Foundation. “Urban lifestyles and changing cultural priorities have reduced people’s direct engagement with the river…water is increasingly viewed as a utilitarian resource rather than a living cultural entity,” says architect and archaeologist Dhanashree Nigudkar. Read it here.

As Nashik prepares for the Kumbh Mela in 2027, the 20-kilometre stretch of the Godavari passing through the historical city is in focus. Today, the river faces a mounting ecological crisis – deeply polluted and fragmented in the way it is governed in each state, the rising pollution and construction on its floodplains, including for riverfront development, it faces a threat to its ecology and existence. Read the Fact Sheet researched and created by Multimedia Journalist Ankita Dhar Karmakar to know all about the sacred river and the challenges it faces, and the restoration efforts to revive it. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read about the court nod for felling of 208 mangrove trees for approach road for the proposed Vadhavan port; A study shows the rise in ‘dangerous humid heat days’ in Indian cities; France reels under scorching heat, records 40 drownings; Researchers defend science in climate studies in Bonn summit; A study finds that uneven heat risks affect low-income populations.

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Thank you,
Smruti
June 26, 2026