Environmental justice - Question of Cities

Can India’s National Clean Air Programme ensure good air and environmental justice?

The conventional citizenship discourse in India is confined among the socio-cultural elites. Paradoxically, these elites often act as compliant participants, as per Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons”, prioritising individual gain over collective responsibility for shared resources. Their pursuit of short-term…

‘Keep environmental justice at the core, not mere environmentalism’

India’s economic growth model, which is based on passing costs to the poor and marginalised while the benefits are for another class of people, makes environmental justice urgent. Environmental issues are seen as problems to be solved with technological interventions,…

Watching over the water of our lakes and wetlands

Thane and Navi Mumbai, old and new cities respectively which are often overshadowed by Mumbai, have seen their ecological abundance of rivers, creeks, wetlands, hills and forests threatened by ‘development’ plans and infrastructure projects. Professionals, environmentalists, architects, traditional communities like…

“The NGT order on Ennore, though important, is a paper victory. The fisherfolk, primary protagonists of this struggle, have to be involved in its implementation”

Ennore wetlands are key to Chennai's flood mitigation and preservation of fresh water aquifers, and home to fisherfolk. Over the years, the fishing community lost the natural area to several infrastructure projects, their children show six times the incidence of…