Archives - Question of Cities

‘We need a thorough review of, not mere amendments to, environmental laws’

We have the right to a healthy environment. It is the responsibility of the government to protect the environment and ensure a good quality of life. But the massive “unsustainable” development across the country by destroying the ecology has created…

Right to clean air: Stop the smog

The Right to Environment includes the right to clean air. But are we really breathing clean air? The rising ailments show that living with polluted air has proven to adversely affect people’s health and even reduce life span or lead…

World’s most polluted city: Delhi chokes and struggles through the smog

Delhi, the capital of India, also lives with the dubious tag of being the most polluted city in the world. Even as it is enveloped in a blanket of smog every year, especially in winter, air quality governance is far…

Delhi’s real town planner, the Yamuna, still gasps for life

Over the decades, even as multi-crore programmes to clean the river are expanded, the Yamuna and its floodplain continue to be polluted. Delhi takes from the Yamuna but treats it as a receptacle for its waste. As long as this…

Delhi’s direct line from air pollution to disease

With the onset of winter in Delhi, smog is back and so are a plethora of diseases. The impact of air and water pollution on health is worsening, not sparing even the young. Lung ailments and heart diseases have become…

Delhi’s landfills spread health hazards amid buried promises

Mountains of garbage on Delhi’s borders have plagued the city’s residents for decades. Garbage burning adds significantly to the air pollution to make Delhi the most polluted city in the world. Contaminated drinking water, toxic fumes from methane fires, and…

Make space for rivers in cities, draft policies to protect them

Natural rivers and their ecosystems in cities are being ruined in the name of development with projects stripping away them of their ecology, changing their geographical features, and leave a lasting damage on the marine life as well on people…

The Sabarmati story: A river is more than a usable resource

The redeveloped, concretised, and glitzy Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad is a far cry from the meandering river which flows into the Arabian Sea. A natural river has been transformed into a tank of stagnant water – for commercial and recreational…

Pune’s Mula-Mutha sinks into ecological disaster

The ancient river, Mula-Mutha, has been battered by floods, encroachments, and rampant constructions causing massive environmental damage. Turned into a sewer and a dumping site over the years, the neglected river is heavily polluted and filthy. The plan to ‘develop’…

‘Why do we not see that our cities have come up around rivers?’

There is a severe stress on our rivers when we treat them like a resource which can be exploited instead of protecting them. Across cities in India, the story of rivers is similar -- heavily polluted with industrial and household…