City: Chennai

Residents of six large apartment complexes on the shores of the Muttukadu backwaters on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) have been helplessly watching the relentless damage to their environment for close to three years now. Constant dumping and burning of mixed waste goes on in these shores at Padur, just behind Hindustan University, within 300 metres of these apartments. Padur on the IT Corridor, 2 km from SIPCOT IT park, has seen rapid development concurrent with the construction of many high rise residential complexes comprised of more than 6000 apartments. Since the area under the Corporation of Chennai extends only up…

In the May 2016 elections, while Tamil Nadu recorded a polling percent of 73.85%, Chennai recorded only 60.5%. The pattern was similar in other metro cities. It was around 54% in Mumbai (2014) and Bangalore (2015), roughly 12-13% lower than the state average. The media, analyst and activists put the blame on urban citizens. But should we really judge by these figures? And even where turnout is in fact low, what are the real reasons behind the phenomenon? The problem of duplicate entries Vote Smart, a Bangalore based NGO run by PG Bhat, analyzed the electoral rolls using software. They…

As I was sitting in my drawing room, binge-watching a TV show, my mother sat right across the couch focused on her (almost full time) hobby – scrolling through Facebook. She announced, “Hey! there is a photo of you celebrating Diwali at Chitra aunty’s place. You are in that cute paavadai that you loathed back then, Look at your scorn”. I hate them, true! My mom had this stern belief that I would grow tall every single day and hence she would religiously buy dresses at least three sizes ahead of my actual one.  I ended up having frocks that…

On September 4th, when civil rights and advocacy group Arappor Iyakkam Secretary Chandra Mohan parked his car at Marina Beach, the parking attendant initially gave him a token for Rs 20, which is the rate that you pay for parking your car for more than 6 hours. It was only after a long argument that the attendant accepted and issued a receipt for the 5 rupee token. Infuriated by the experience, Chandra Mohan went on to file a complaint in the nearest police station and shared the entire experience in a Facebook post. His pledge now is to ensure that…

He has an air of spirituality and wisdom that is beyond his 29 years. As he sits in his office and tells me about the journey of Environment Foundation of India, I cannot but help wonder what I was doing with my life when I was his age. Nothing important comes to mind. And here I am, face to face with this young man, who has already helped save and restore over 39 lakes and 54 ponds in the country! Arun Krishnamurthy is one of the world’s youngest awardees of the Rolex Award for Enterprise. The award recognised his contribution…

Jyoti Singh Pandey. Qandeel Baluchi. Shakti steel mills. Kopardi. Rohtak. Dalit. Muslim. 22-year-old. 14-year-old. 6-year-old. Strangulation. Rape. Acid attack. The crimes are varied, as are the ages of the victims, the location, their religion. Even the method of attack. What's common in every one of these cases, and more of the kind, is the fact that all of the victims are women. Crimes against women are on the rise and every day, women everywhere are losing their life and liberty as easily and as carelessly as bugs get crushed under our feet. But we are always able to move on,…

I H Sekar, a fisherman and environmentalist living near Pallikaranai marsh land in Chennai, is awaiting judgment for a case he filed a year back, to protect the marsh from yet another encroachment. This is the third case that he has filed so far on the marsh. This time the encroachment has been by the government itself, to build an RTO office which will be a dump yard for vehicles. The Pallikaranai marsh used to be spread across 6000 hectares some 50 years back, but only 600-odd hectares remain now. It’s still the biggest remaining wetland in Chennai, where destruction…

Who can forget the devastation of the Chennai Floods in December 2015? Certainly not the residents of Chennai who suffered for days, nor the volunteers who scrambled to provide relief. Almost a year has passed, and the monsoon is upon us again. Is the city prepared to face a deluge? Has the Government taken preventive measures? Have we learnt any lessons at all from last year? To find answers to some of these questions, and to push for constructive action towards making Chennai flood-safe, Arappor Iyakkam launched “Kelu Chennai Kelu”, a one-of-a-kind attempt at participatory democracy, a public hearing on…

Her enthusiasm for meeting people is equalled only by her indignation at the pathetic state of the infrastructure all over the city - the roads that get relaid without being milled, the storm water drains that are overflowing because someone let their sewage water into it, the bio-toilet that everyone pees around, but no one goes inside to their job, the lovely Besant nagar beach where everyone loves to stomp around but no one stops to give a thought to the teeming marine life in the sand... she can go on and on.. But no, she is not a pessimist,…

The Joy of Giving offers so much satisfaction and adds a definite meaning and purpose to our lives. The joy of sharing and giving is especially much more significant when we live in a world where we spend money easily on several material and non-material comforts but often forget the fact that a simple home cooked meal for one person costs only about Rs.50 at the most. We swipe our debit cards on clothes, cosmetics, food, gadgets, toys, travel and don’t think twice about spending huge amounts but have we ever thought of how much more a relatively minuscule amount…