Archives - Question of Cities

‘Climate solutions should be grounded in human rights, equality, and participation of worst hit’

Climate change is a human rights issue too, as judgments in India and abroad recently underscored. This recognises that not all people are equally affected by climate-related events in countries or cities. The marginalised, women and girls, informal and outdoor…

Reading the Supreme Court judgment on the Right to Life and climate change

In a judgment that flew below the radar, the Supreme Court of India brought the impact of climate change into sharp focus. The case was about the Great Indian Bustard but the apex court articulated a powerful idea in the…

Mumbai’s urban forests are missing and unrecognised: Report

Around 1,400 hectares of urban forest across 18 locations in Mumbai, from Sion and Trombay to Powai and Goregaon, is almost forgotten and invisible in the concrete jungle. Mapping and documenting them is the first step in recognising the ecology…

How Punekars fought for their hill, Vetal Tekdi, to save its ecology

Pune’s citizens have been fighting to save Vetal Tekdi, the city’s lungs and a popular open space, from being destroyed for developmental projects. Realising the importance of nature in a rapidly expanding city, a coalition of citizens and groups have…

Linear parks: Adding value to urban landscape

Seamless stretches of green space and blue water courses, opening up possibilities and amenities for the public, are significant characteristics of a healthy and liveable city. The green stretches may well be linear parks threading various neighbourhoods, creating accessible and…

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From nature in cities to imagining cities in nature, for our future

Nature shapes and defines cities, but the prevailing model of city-making equates development with construction at the cost of ecology, purely for profit. This has led to a serious rupture in nature and segregation of nature from people. As the…

Ladakh: The meltdown in the cold desert as people fast for nature

The 21-day fast by engineer, educator and activist Sonam Wangchuk in March drew attention to the fragile ecology of Leh-Ladakh and the rights of local people over nature as development projects made a beeline after Article 370 was read down…

What Shimla’s construction in defiance of its mountain ecology means

Over half of Shimla, the hill station from the British era that is still popular among tourists, has been officially classified as moderately prone and 33 percent of it highly prone to landslides. The brunt of landslides is borne by…

Sinking city: Climate risk, adaptation and urban governance in Mumbai

Mumbai’s geography makes it one of the cities most vulnerable to climate change. Mitigation and adaptation should be at the forefront of its governance but institutional actors have largely failed. Top-down policies and the Mumbai Climate Action Plan, a non-statutory…