Ecology - Question of Cities

Delhi like the dhau: A city of co-existence and kinship

The city reveals its quieter cycles beyond kilometres built and capital leveraged, if only we cared to look closely, recognise its biodiversity, restore native ecologies, and invest in nature-based solutions beyond token gestures. There’s birdsong as layered chorus, seasonal blooming…

Mumbai, our city, is being snatched from us

Through the decades of 1970-80s and till the mid-90s, Bombay was the arena for associations, unions, collectives and movements for people’s rights, justice, and equality. Dialogues and disagreements were part of its landscape, social action unfolded on its streets. That…

Bengaluru re-imagined through its incredible water network

Bengaluru’s water woes are not new but, this letter to the city by a hardcore Bengalurean and water expert, is a tender recount of its water network with an appeal to look beyond lakes’ restoration. From connecting lake channels, situating…

Clean air and water in Thrissur. Breaking barriers in Chennai

Drawing a circle from Thrissur to Chennai, Mumbai, and back to Thrissur, this multi-city letter weighs in to reminisce what used to make them ‘home’ earlier, and what has changed over the decades and what has not. It then re-imagines,…

Dehradun, we dream a future without air purifiers and ailments

Two summers ago, when the temperature of Dehradun touched 47 degrees Celsius, many realised the price of sacrificing trees for development and came out to protest. The picturesque hill station has been marred by over-tourism, congestion, excessive construction, and poor…

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 3,000 lakes, had 22 flood diversion channels, 14 public parks, and places of learning and social life along…

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 floodplains were ignored earlier; now, the Yamuna Action Plan itself includes riverfront development with concretisation even as long-time…

‘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 an ecological perspective, say Dr Reema Bhatia and Meeta Kumar in this interview. Their research paper ‘Urbanising a…