City: Kolkata

If you just happen to drive along the wide, tree-lined Southern Avenue -- aptly named for its location in the southern part of the city of Kolkata and the giant trees that form a canopy along much of its stretch -- you may not be able to fully fathom the beauty of the 192-acre lung space of the city that you have just passed by. But if you have a moment to spare and enter the sprawling precincts of the Rabindra Sarobar Lake to the south of the main thoroughfare, you will undoubtedly be drawn forever to this verdant sanctuary…

“I would always get into fights with my mother, about having separate bins for waste segregation, switching off lights and all those things.” Prateek Agarwal has been passionate about the environment for as long as he can remember. That passion has manifested itself in his current venture. Together with Subham Agarwala and Siddhant Khetan, Prateek co-founded “Green Strips,” an initiative which aims to replace plastic bags with paper bags, subsidised through advertisements placed on the latter. The twenty-year old likes designing and travelling, and pines for the Delhi food he left behind when he went to study in Kolkata. But…

In October 2016, Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala rejected the Karnataka Urban Development Authorities (Amendment) Bill, 2016, sending it back to the state government for reconsideration. The Bill allowed for reducing the area of parks and open spaces within residential layouts, in towns other than Bengaluru. Currently, 15% of the area of residential layouts have to be retained for parks and playgrounds for the use of general public, and another 10% for civic amenities. The amendment would reduce these to 10% and 5% respectively, which will be applicable for all upcoming layouts. The KUDA Bill had been passed by the legislature…