Natural Environment - Question of Cities

What if the Musi River could lead the development of Hyderabad?

The Musi, the pride of the city during the Nizam era, is a channel of filth, its banks encroached upon, its waters carrying untreated waste and industrial effluents, and its edges subjected to construction in the name of riverfront development.…

‘Rivers are not meant to die because of our mistakes’

The Musi could have been the defining characteristic of Hyderabad, the cyber city, as it was in history when it filled over…

The Musi was, and is, Hyderabad’s heritage
and culture

The story of the Musi is woven with that of the city. It, historically, had a riverfront with grand palaces, shamshaan ghats,…

‘We want the Musi cleaned but without displacing the people’

Once a lifeline of the city of Hyderabad, the Musi was home to thousands of people – mostly economically backward -- living…

The Musi – then and now

Cover photo: Musi River at Hyderabad/ Wikimedia Commons

Delhi owes the Yamuna an ecologically-sound river-led city plan

The deterioration and shrinking of the Yamuna in Delhi have worsened over the decades despite thousands of crores spent. Constructions on its…

‘The Yamuna is a living and breathing thing. We are systematically killing it’

Although India’s vision of a river was historically been influenced by the British, urban plans in contemporary India too do not have…

The Yamuna: Memoir of
a dying river

Nikeita Saraf, a Thane-based architect and urban practitioner, works as illustrator and writer with Question of Cities. Through her academic years at School of Environment and Architecture, and later as Urban Fellow at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements…

‘The government got votes from here, now claims the settlement is illegal’

What happens when a river’s relationships with people closest to it are broken and all talk of the river is reduced to…

The relentless fighters who cycle, campaign and rally to save Yamuna

Pankaj Kumar quit his job to work 24x7 for a clean Yamuna. Vikrant Tongad decided he would not be a silent spectator…