Articles by Darshan Desai

Visitors to today’s swanky Surat would find it difficult to imagine what the city was like when plague struck in 1994.

A study of land-use patterns, through Landsat images from 1974 to 2017, has revealed that water bodies in Ahmedabad have been shrinking at a decadal rate of 1.57 square km.

The question is especially pertinent given that the AMC is unable to provide basic infrastructure even within its present jurisdiction and faces a big loss of income due to COVID.

The Ahmedabad Medical Association has warned that the the virus could cause irreversible damage unless aggressive sampling and testing is started immediately. COVID has now spread to 32 of the state’s 33 districts — barring the small tribal district of Dangs.

The state’s alleged attempts to control COVID data was evident in its own admission in court: The likelihood of fear psychosis cannot be ruled out if COVID-19 testing is allowed in all asymptomatic cases.

More than 5,000 unauthorised constructions have been demolished in the crackdown following the horrific fire in a Surat coaching centre in May, but in a city that has routinely legalised illegal buildings and never looked inside to check compliance with fire guidelines, is the present knee-jerk reaction really enough?