Pollution - Question of Cities

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

Call them tree warriors or green crusaders. They are fighting the tough battle in cities across India – Dehradun, Delhi, Bengaluru – to preserve and protect trees both for their intrinsic value and to combat the effects of climate change.…

Eco-friendly festivals are still a dream

Most festivals have a long way to go to become genuinely sustainable even as greenwashing -- claiming false or exaggerated environmental benefits -- takes hold. Knee-jerk reactions such as banning or restricting firecrackers only days before Diwali hardly help. Purposeful…

‘Waste pickers are treated like step-children but the formal sector can’t work without them’

Most of Bengaluru’s waste used to be dumped in the villages nearby and waste pickers invisibilised despite their critical role. Hasiru Dala has been working to organise them, get government identity cards for them, and make them stakeholders in the…

Sorry, but flyovers will never ease Guwahati’s traffic woes

The scourge of metropolitan cities – congested roads, rising motorised vehicles, growth in private transport – is now in Assam’s largest city too. Guwahati with its growing population and intricate network of smaller lanes connecting to major arterial roads, poses…

The way ahead for Delhi’s transport: Green mobility, women’s safety

The modern-day Delhi has not been known for an efficient, safe and reliable public transport system though nearly half of its commuter population uses it, with the metro registering nearly 3.2 million and the bus network 2.5 million commuters a…

Urban spaces and mental health: The important correlation we miss

In the race to construct cities with mega projects, the relationship between the built environment and people’s mental health is rarely acknowledged. Asocial behaviour and mental illnesses like anxiety and depression are the outcome of urban planning and design. While…

Let’s breathe better air, said cities and fought air pollution

As people in cities across India struggle to breathe through the smog and haze that now characterise winter months, a number of solutions are discussed of which a few are adopted before the season changes and the air clears. There’s…

Festivals in cities, beyond celebrations, shape public place and identity

Cities are theatres of celebration of different kinds of festivals, from the traditional and religious to the contemporary and cultural. People congregate and celebrate, but the story of festivals in cities does not end there. Festivals help to shape –…

When celebrations also mean bad air, deafening noise and waste mounds

The glitter and bonhomie of festivals in India bring in unwanted and unhealthy guests in the form of pollution and waste. Every year, in the north of India especially, the winter air which is laden with emissions and is hazardous…

Anniversary Edition

Making nature and people in cities the focal point of dialogues

As Question of Cities completes a year, we present to you some of the best and the most-read essays or on-ground stories through the year – with the added value of having the writers reflect on a few key questions.…