Ecology - Question of Cities

The ‘build more’ way has failed. How to build better cities?

The construction industry, India’s second-largest contributor to the national GDP, rules the roost in cities, determining housing and other basic amenities, turning natural areas and common property resources into buildings or highways, and yet failing to address the shortfall in…

Seeing the unseen nature amidst Mumbai’s expanding concrete

A casualty of the build more approach is the erasure of precious natural wealth. Amidst the concrete maze of Mumbai-Navi Mumbai, there are still some treasures tucked away, as this photograph of flamingos shows. The Vihar Lake, the flora-fauna in…

‘Better dust upon leaves than in the lungs of the citizens’

Patrick Geddes, the Scottish biologist, conservationist, sociologist and town planner who spent long years working in India, believed it was important that the natural assets of a town, and everyone’s fair share of them, are protected, nurtured, and integrated into…

How much has your city expanded its footprint of
built-up area?

In cities across India, people speak of how much more construction they see in familiar areas. But how much exactly has been built? What does the data tell us? There’s no clarity, especially for common folk who do not have…

Feminism meets environmentalism but women left out of decision-making

As women, across barriers of caste and class and other social indices, assert themselves, they also touch upon environmental issues that are deeply tied to their lives, living conditions, work and more. They raise voices as women demanding gender justice…

How urban plans can, and must, value trees

Urban development plans and master plans have traditionally seen trees as impediments to ‘development’, rarely acknowledging them as natural wealth of cities and hardly making provisions to protect and preserve them. This will no longer work in the time of…

Bad news for Earth: Hot leaves can’t catch carbon from air

Leafy canopies play a crucial role in regulating the global climate – and mitigating global warming. But, as a recent study shows, rising temperatures will severely affect the ability of tropical forests to photosynthesise. This, in turn, will hinder their…

Tag: Ecology

The ‘build more’ way has failed. How to build better cities?

Seeing the unseen nature amidst Mumbai’s expanding concrete

‘Better dust upon leaves than in the lungs of the citizens’

How much has your city expanded its footprint of
built-up area?

Feminism meets environmentalism but women left out of decision-making

How urban plans can, and must, value trees

Bad news for Earth: Hot leaves can’t catch carbon from air

Guwahati is fast axing its trees and undermining its future

‘Cutting trees has become as routine as buying stamps at post office’

Walking with the trees of Mumbai, their fragrance and taste in tow