Dear readers,

The Yamuna inspires poetry and disgust in equal measure. Millions in Delhi-NCR need it but it’s also a filthy eyesore. The significance and sacredness of the river have drowned in apathy and neglect of the officialdom. She lies behind the city /in wet ashes, her world is a big urn / where dead myths are swimming across like ghost fish / devouring each other mouth first is among the many verses that poet Rachit Sharma wrote. The Yamuna continues to be toxic from the untreated sewage and effluents dumped into it, its ecology severed by sand mining and legal encroachments, and its floodplains  opened to more construction than ever. 

But the relationship of a river with the city it flows through is not only functional; it’s a layered interconnection with the people and place. In this edition, Question of Cities explores a few facets of this interconnection – river ecology and the need to centre it in Delhi’s development plans, people who depend on the Yamuna for their livelihood, warriors campaigning to improve it, and academician-researchers who remind us that “the river is a living and breathing thing”.

The lead essay by multimedia journalist Ankita Dhar Karmakar examines the deterioration and shrinking of the Yamuna in Delhi that have worsened over the decades despite thousands of crores spent. Constructions on its floodplains were ignored earlier; now, the Yamuna Action Plan itself includes riverfront development with concretisation even as long-time residents along the riverbank are ruthlessly evicted. There could not be a greater rupture of the interconnectedness between the river and the city. The way forward is to chart river-led development plans with clear flood lines, treat Delhi’s waste before discharge, and respect the river as a living entity. Read it here.

Although India’s vision of a river was historically influenced by the British, urban plans in contemporary India too do not have an ecological perspective, say academician-researchers Dr Reema Bhatia and Meeta Kumar in this interview to QoC. Their paper ‘Urbanising a river, twin tales of Yamuna and Delhi’ shows why the river is a composite ecological entity, how Delhi sees the Yamuna’s floodplains largely as potential real estate, and “people who live with the river are being done away with because the government wants to beautify the river”. Read it here.

Yamuna helped shape the city of Delhi in its many iterations. As the city expanded, the stress on the river increased too and it has veered between being Delhi’s water source and dumping ground. Every Chief Minister of Delhi has made statements to improve its health and ecology. In 1993, the government launched the Yamuna Action Plan to clean the river and restore it. Yet, it has narrowed down, it stinks in places, and will host the riverfront development soon. QoC visualiser and writer Nikeita Saraf has this Fact Sheet on the Yamuna – the one-stop to get all the relevant data, facts and figures. Read it here.

What happens when a river’s relationships with people closest to it are broken and all talk of the river is reduced to drains and development, barrages and budgets? The people are invisibilised like the forgotten farmers and evicted slum dwellers along the banks of the Yamuna in Delhi. Some have lived for decades, others hold documents and maps from the British era. Regardless, many are termed encroachers and find themselves facing threats of evictions and demolitions. Multimedia journalist Ankita Dhar Karmakar meets some of them. Read it here.

Pankaj Kumar quit his job to work 24×7 for a clean Yamuna. Vikrant Tongad decided he would not be a silent spectator to the pollution in the river. Manu Bhatnagar chalked out a water policy with nature-based solutions. Nishant Pawar opened a school to educate children on the importance of rivers. Team QoC talks to some of those who have passionately followed their mission to save the Yamuna in the belief that “river pollution is not just an environmental problem, it’s a social problem”. Their efforts may seem scattered or a drop in the river but every warrior of the river counts. Read it here.

In our regular section, News Digest, read about Bombay High Court appointing retired judges to monitor air pollution; India’s Union Budget reduces allocation of funds for pollution control; India gets two more Ramsar sites – Patna Bird Sanctuary, Chhari-Dhand; Australia experiences worst heatwave on record; and tenant hotlines in the US see a surge of residents seeking help.

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Thank you
Smruti 
February 6, 2026