Land Use - Question of Cities

‘Ecology is a city’s natural buffer. We don’t see its tipping point, its warning.’

As large swathes of natural ecology in our cities are sacrificed for development and construction, not only do we lose the trees and rivers and lakes, but also the imagination of cities defined by its natural elements. Land use does…

The Himalayan disasters point to reckless construction, not merely climate change

As Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab struggle to recover from the widespread devastation this monsoon, it is futile to only blame climate change. The ground situation and studies point to reckless construction – even over-construction – in the…

Dehradun: Infrastructure development or the
ghost of greed?

The aggressive push for infrastructure projects – specifically the Char Dham Yatra road, Dehradun’s airport expansion, and an elevated corridor to Mussoorie – threaten the fragile ecology of the Himalayan region. Despite studies advising caution, the government pushes ahead with…

The anatomy of density in our cities: A storyboard, a way of seeing

Density, in urban planning, is often reduced to a simple metric: the number of people within a given land area.[1] But it is more than just bodies per square kilometre. It is also the concentration of housing units, the total…

Private space and public interest in the Indian city

How we choose to imagine the city fundamentally affects whether democratic urban governance serves public interest or gets compromised by increasing privatisation. We tend to imagine it as a conceptual model translatable into technical frameworks such as a master plan.…

How healthcare privatisation undermines population health in cities

The privatisation of healthcare in low- and middle- income cities from Delhi and Mumbai to Nairobi and Lagos means shiny private clinics rise alongside crumbling public hospitals, creating a geography of care that mirrors and reinforces urban inequality. Regulatory responses…

From public good to private control: Land governance and urban exclusion in India

As India’s urban governance changed from mixed-use neighbourhoods to gated colonies, cities transformed reshaping land into a tradable asset disconnected from its social utility. Land is reserved for commercial use and high-income housing while informal neighbourhoods are missing from plans.…

Overturning a burden: Privatisation of land and city building

From the ideological framework that determines how land is acquired, held and distributed to people’s access to housing and amenities, land use is the most critical aspect of urbanisation. It is the motherboard on which urbanisation unfolds. After the liberalisation…

Reforms in Hyderabad: From World Bank to land bank

The erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh was the World Bank’s first sub-national loan experiment. The eventual privatisation of the public sector and projects also meant de-collectivisation of land as the state acquired it for ‘development’. Financial markets used land as…

Mumbai’s contested land use and the jostle for space

The pattern of land use in India’s commercial capital has meant that it is among the most dense cities in Asia. This is Mumbai’s reality – visual reality with tall towers packed so closely that breeze does not move between…