‘Ecology and landform give rise to urban form. Town planning flattens it to 2-dimension’
Cities have been turned into a mechanical mode of counting numbers with excel sheets, looking at which plot of land can be…
Interviews - Page 2
‘I have a negative sense of the judiciary; conflicting orders are passed’
An important path to protect ecology and seek environmental justice has been through the courts where, in numerous cases, citizens and lawyers…
‘The greatest threat to wetlands is, ironically,
government agencies’
In a landmark order in December 2024,[1] the Supreme Court directed every state to appoint its Wetland Authority, complete ground truthing, and…
‘Ecology is a city’s natural buffer. We don’t see its tipping point, its warning.’
As large swathes of natural ecology in our cities are sacrificed for development and construction, not only do we lose the trees…
‘Infrastructure and design of buildings matter, not only density’
Density is not the only factor in people in Mumbai’s slum rehabilitation colonies getting tuberculosis; a multi-disciplinary study showed that the built…
Why governments promote private profiteering and undermine public goods
The increasing trend towards privatising public goods and services under the pretext of making them cost-efficient has, in fact, come at a…
‘The ‘two Indias’ in healthcare – can we have a new normal?’
With the under-funded and overwhelmed public healthcare system alongside the private which over-treats in pursuit of profits, India has a peculiar combination,…
‘Private interests accumulate land through force or power. That’s a big problem’
If governments want equitable, sustainable and inclusive cities, they should understand how policies and planning can influence land use and the creation…
‘Save the Yamuna floodplains from government-sponsored encroachment’
The Yamuna is being choked, artificial grass is being watered with ground water, ornamental plants and bamboo trees planted, the riverbank has…
‘Give the river back its space. Give it a new spatial
role in a city’
São Paulo and Mumbai are similar in that the cities have seen massive urbanisation at the cost of rivers. The Tietê and…