City: Bhopal

“Wetlands are seen as waste lands, to be encroached and built upon,” says Himanshu Thakkar, water expert and coordinator at SANDRP. “There is no effective legal protection for most of our wetlands. In fact, there are no updates on maps of wetlands. There is no system for clearance or monitoring when wetland components undergo a change.”   No wonder then that India is losing its wetlands at a rate of two to three per cent each year. Going by the Wetlands International South Asia (WISA) report, from 1970 to 2014, major cities that have reported a massive loss of wetlands.  are…

“No one likes to beg, people have started looking for other work; they will not continue to beg,” says a determined Tasvir, trying to mask the suffering and struggle of months and trying to find hope in the bleakest of situations. But does his community really have alternatives? Tasvir belongs to the ‘Pardhi’ tribe, members of which are scattered across Bhopal and its fringes. In an earlier article, we had described how the COVID-induced lockdown had brought them face to face with hunger and malnourishment, making them entirely dependent on the charity of civil society organisations. Deprived of their livelihoods and…

Having spent the first two months of the pandemic and nationwide lockdown in politicking, to first grab and then stay in power, the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-led BJP government has now launched a 15-day state-wide “Kill Corona” programme from July 1st. The programme includes door to door surveys in urban slums and low-income households having high population density and poor municipal management as a majority of positive cases in both cities have been reported from these areas. As per data from the government's smart city portal, Indore has the second highest slum population (30%) in the state, followed by Jabalpur (46%)…

Ehsaan Nagar, Gandhi Nagar and Rajiv Nagar  -- three slums in and around Bhopal that are home to 288 families of the Bel-Pardhi, one of the 198 'denotified' tribes in India. Gandhinagar and Ehsaan Nagar came up in 2002 on the outskirts of Bhopal, whereas Rajivnagar is located well within the city limits. In the wake of the COVID-19 triggered lockdown, availability and access to food among these tribal families across these three slums, who lead a hand-to-mouth existence even during normal times, has emerged as an issue of great concern. Out of these 288 households, 50-60% have ration cards,…

They are just a statistic, as they have been for decades now. The survivors of Bhopal’s killer gas tragedy. And if the deadly gas made them and their children victims of lifelong illnesses, the coronavirus threatens to literally kill them off, by denying them what little medical treatment they were receiving at the only hospital specifically set up for treating gas victims, the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC). On March 23, a government order suddenly turned BMHRC into an isolation and treatment centre exclusively for coronavirus patients. The treatment of 80 gas-affected patients admitted there was abruptly stopped…

There is nothing intelligent about Bhopal’s Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS), introduced in June 2018 at a cost of Rs 17 crore. A project under Bhopal’s smart city initiatives, the ITMS is meant to regulate Bhopal's traffic and bring traffic violators to book. But the rising number of new vehicles, poor road conditions and a total lack of civic sense among the city’s rapidly growing population, have rendered the system meaningless. Erring motorists and two-wheeler riders have blithely ignored the many e-challans they have received for traffic violations like traffic light violation, over speeding, no helmets and triple riding. (Total…

Heritage and history mean little to city authorities responsible for the maintenance of Bhopal’s parks. Like the historic Yadgar-e-Shahjahani Park, which is being used more for holding sit-ins and demonstrations, pushing out those just wanting a pleasant walk in the park. Shahjahani Park, situated close to the Lower Lake, is a heritage site (established in 1890) where once people gathered to take part in the 1942 Quit India Movement. Unchecked illegal dumping of municipal solid waste in Shahjahani Park and its periodic use by groups for organizing protests and sit-ins has led to its present deplorable condition. Last year, the…

Man and animal are being deprived of their daily requirement of meat, as a thoroughly exasperated Justice S. Raghuvendra Rathore of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) summarily ordered the closure of Bhopal’s only licensed abattoir at Jinsi. Justice Rathore also directed the police SSP to provide all assistance to the Bhopal Collector to implement this order. The government-run abattoir situated in Jehangirabad area at the city centre, had been facing protests from people residing and working in nearby areas for a long time, primarily complaints against the foul stench emanating from it. There have also been complaints over meat from…

“The roads of my colony have been damaged to such an extent due to rains that our friends avoid visiting us,” said Ajay Kumar, an engineering student, who lives in Meenakshi Planet Colony on Hoshangabad Road. “Many residents here have been injured in accidents because of the poor condition of roads. Last month my room-mate Satish ran onto a water-filled pothole and his bike got stuck. Luckily, he escaped with minor bruises”. It’s a story many of Bhopal’s residents narrate. Continuous rains in the state have destroyed crops and washed away roads and culverts in the city and on the…

The much-hyped 24-km BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) corridor in the city, on which Rs 329 crore has already been spent to create the required infrastructure, is now likely to be dismantled, at a cost of 40% of the money already spent on it. The “corridor of trouble”, as it has come to be known among commuters, residents and commercial establishments on its route, has seen 121 accidents and 21 fatalities between 2016 and 2018, according to official figures. Not to mention the traffic chaos it is causing. Launched in 2013 by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, the corridor from Misrod…