Ecology - Question of Cities

‘By leaves we live, the world is mainly a vast leaf colony’

They are everywhere, although hidden sometimes, but provide a layer of comfort amidst the grey concrete. Lush green landscapes not only soothe the eyes but allow people-nature bonds to form in cities. As a business place for hawkers, resting place…

Nepal’s Melamchi, still recovering from 2021 flood, shows multiple risks of rapid urbanisation

Melamchi, 76 kilometres from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, was bouncing back from the massive 2015 earthquake when the flood in 2021 brought further devastation. The ravaging flood also severely damaged its ambitious water supply project which had taken nearly three decades…

Gurugram: Navigating the waters between urban planning and floods

The bustling and swanky city in Haryana and part of the National Capital Region, Gurugram – earlier Gurgaon – witnessed rapid urbanisation in the past few decades but, in the process, lost a staggering 389 water bodies and many open…

Bengal’s cities face ‘extreme danger’ as they turn heat wave hotspots

Kolkata and Asansol, the former with its proximity to the sea and the latter located near the lower fringes of the Chhota Nagpur plateau, experienced sudden and intense heat this year. Both the cities in West Bengal have expanded in…

‘Why Joshimath, Mussoorie and Nainital are also threatened towns’

When Joshimath, a hill town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, suffered the destruction caused by subsidence in January, the large infrastructure projects were halted but it may have been a bit too late. It was mere damage control. Numerous committees,…

Gandhinagar’s urban sprawl turns greenest city into a planned mess

Like the other planned cities, Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar has veered away from the original master plan and developed into an urban jungle. The Sabarmati, on the banks of which the city was planned, is plagued by pollution with the renovation…

How Bhubaneswar’s master plan was overtaken by unsustainable development

German-Jewish architect Otto Koenigsberger adopted a linear approach in building Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar in which the neighbourhood unit would be “an attempt to transplant into the city one of the healthiest features of country and small-town life.” This, he argued,…

Bhubaneswar’s urbanisation caught between old temple town and new city

The new city of Bhubaneswar was built from scratch but in the frenzy of building Odisha’s capital, the existing Old Town was pushed into the background. Inclusion and integration were crucial while the new city was being built but there…

Transformation of the planned city: Some hits, some misses

The temple town of Bhubaneswar is no longer a town of people employed in the government, building a life with their families in bungalows built on allotted plots in the planned units. The city has grown multi-fold beyond its master…

Apli Kham: Ecological river restoration as placemaking

The journey of Kham River Restoration Mission in Aurangabad may provide the path to placemaking in a complex situation. Through collaborations, imaginative leadership and public participation, it has been able to address the problem of untreated sewage let out into…