Natural Environment - Question of Cities

Tree lessons from the world for sustainable cities

From the Library of Trees in Milan to the Master Plan for Barcelona’s trees 2017-2037 at the centre of local policies, from green roofs in Copenhagen and Toronto to Soeul’s winding tree paths, cities around the world are finding ways…

Move the air pollution needle to smaller and neglected cities

Conversations and policies on air pollution are mostly centred on Delhi and Mumbai but other cities and towns have been facing toxic…

‘Goa has successful ecological movements but we should not have to keep doing this’

From a languid destination for vacations, Goa has turned into a hotspot for tourism projects, real estate development, and large investments. Village…

Go, Goa, Gone: Ecology and ethos being erased by commerce

The state was once a poster for all things exquisite with breath-takingly beautiful landscapes and seafronts, villages nestled in the greens, laid-back…

Eco-friendly festivals are still a dream

Most festivals have a long way to go to become genuinely sustainable even as greenwashing -- claiming false or exaggerated environmental benefits…

Wayanad’s lessons on how not to manufacture ecological disasters

The 572-millimetres rain in two days triggering massive landslides in Wayanad shook the nation. Beyond the rising death toll and large-scale devastation…

From ground zero: Human decisions worsened climate tragedy in Wayanad

Even as the challenge of rehabilitating the landslide-affected looms large, the disaster raises other issues. Once a dense forest, Wayanad now has…

India’s changing monsoon patterns demand shifting gears in preparedness

There is empirical evidence to show that changes in the monsoon or heavier rainfall is not merely our imagination. The tehsil-level study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water maps, like never before, the many changes across India. As…

‘Maharashtra had 1,500 landslides in 2021, so 1,500 lessons but nothing learnt’

The Wayanad landslides bring back memories of last year’s landslide in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, on the Sahyadri range of the Western Ghats…

Mithi: More than a rainwater drain for Mumbai but tell that to the authorities

The quiet Mithi River turned hostile on July 26, 2005, flooding the city in the record 944 millimetres rainfall that day. Pinched…