Sustainability - Question of Cities

How Navi Mumbai developed into an urban jungle edging out nature

The planned satellite city on the outskirts of the oversaturated Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, was built from scratch. Its landscape was once an ecologically-rich rural one with hill ranges, dozens of wetlands, creeks and intertidal areas, tropical semi-evergreen and deciduous vegetation,…

‘Why Joshimath, Mussoorie and Nainital are also threatened towns’

When Joshimath, a hill town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, suffered the destruction caused by subsidence in January, the large infrastructure projects were halted but it may have been a bit too late. It was mere damage control. Numerous committees,…

Battered and forgotten, Joshimath holds a lesson in urbanising at the cost of environment

It’s been more than three months since the subsidence in the hill town of Joshimath, Uttarakhand, made headlines. Deep cracks appeared in houses, roads and fields --- triggering anger and anguish among the residents, who had been alerting authorities about…

‘Gandhinagar is a green ghost capital city – and hardly Gandhian’

When Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar was conceptualised, it seemed like an ideal place to live in with a vast expanse of greenery. The city has grown in all directions, ignoring the Gandhian principles of minimalism, sustainability, and liveability which are crucial…

‘Every rupee a city spends now on projects must have a climate lens’

If cities are at the forefront of mitigation and adaptation against Climate Change, then a network of cities forged across international borders would go a long way in addressing the issue. Mayors and leaders of cities in the international C40…

India’s climate action planning needs ecological vision and social sensitivity

The National Action Plan on Climate Change of 2008 was criticised for lacking depth, vision, and urgency; these have not been addressed in the 2015 revision. There is concern on how individual development projects in cities conform to the climate…

Digitalisation cannot be an unqualified “smart” solution to urban issues

As many cities become smarter by harnessing digitalisation and technology, sustainable development and ecology have been pushed behind. Smart Cities Mission, offered as the one-stop solution to many urban problems, has a chequered report card. Studies have shown that “smart…

‘We need to plan cities for extremes. Climate Change is all about extremes’

The torrential rain and floods in Bengaluru in early September grabbed international attention, showing up wide cracks in the basic infrastructure of the ‘IT capital of India’. Tractors rescued the better off people to safety, the less privileged were left…

Traditional urban planning fails women; make them visible in planning to transform cities

Do women feel safe in cities? Do they get equal job opportunities and amenities as men? A woman’s experience of safety, ease of mobility and so on is determined by the way cities are organised. It is important for urban…