Climate Change - Question of Cities

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 is the question being asked of authorities in Kerala as well as across India’s hills, cities and towns…

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 tea and coffee plantations, tourist resorts, road projects through the mountain ranges, and mono-culture crops like rubber whose…

Dehradun model of development is unsustainable, ecologically hazardous

Once a quaint hill station nestled in the Himalayas, cradling many public institutions of learning and research, Dehradun has seen rapid growth and construction. Studies show that the town’s built-up area increased, almost doubled, in the past 20-odd years while…

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…

Why Mumbai should look beyond Chitale Committee report

In the aftermath of the July 2005 flood, the fact-finding committee submitted its report within nine months. The Madhav Chitale Committee report was widely hailed on two counts – for showing Mumbai’s grave deficiencies in flood management and suggesting a…

Rain anxiety trumps the ‘spirit of Mumbai’ for millions

For many in Mumbai who lived through or know of the devastating flood on July 26-27, 2005, every monsoon brings back the nightmare. Those living in informal settlements, the homeless, the millions of commuters, show great anxiety about a possible…

Verse on water: Monsoon’s many languages

The monsoon lends itself to poetry and rhyme. But how to capture its majesty, its melancholy, its morbidity in a few lines? Which language captures the different rhythms of rain, from the gentle and soothing needed in overheated cities to…

From monsoon magic to mayhem and what cities can do about it

There was a time when the monsoon brought a lot of joy and exhilaration in cities. The season was a part of the rhythm of life and monsoon troubles were fewer before it evoked that sinking feeling, anxiety, and, for…

Why India’s cities are not prepared for extreme heat and high rainfall

Searing heat scorched northern India, including Delhi, before rains hit hard. Flooding threw life out of gear in Pune, Bengaluru, Itanagar among other cities through June. Hundreds lost their lives. Cities were ill-equipped to address these extreme weather events whose…

Plastic chokes drains but bans are not enough

India’s ban on plastic in 2022 was to restrict the manufacture, distribution, stocking, sale and use of 19 single-use plastic items. An impractical approach and flawed implementation has resulted in hordes of plastic waste which chokes stormwater drains, washes up…