City: Mumbai

A misguided water policy, rapid unfettered urbanisation, lack of vision and a growth model characterized by indiscriminate greed is killing Mumbai and depriving the city of its basic right to quench its thirst. The 1.2 crore residents of the megapolis currently face a 10 percent water cut, effective since November 15, 2018. Mumbai is no stranger to water cuts but the rationing started much earlier this year than in previous years, months before the scorching summers were due to set in. This was to make up for the less rainfall this year. The city received 13.13 million litres of surface…

What does a city look like? Who lives in the city? If you are thinking of the New York skyline, skyscrapers, wide roads, clean streets and cars, you are perhaps not alone. These westernized imaginings are quick to invade our mind whenever there is talk of urbanscape. However, now think consciously of the space that we inhabit, a typical Indian megacity, and our own daily experiences may present themselves as stark contradictions. Having lived in Mumbai, when I think of a city I am taken back to my daily commutes to college, in the local trains. Standing at the doorstep,…

In the ongoing Amsterdam Light Festival, illuminating the city’s waterway, a Serbian artist duo’s installation of an LED version of Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic painting ‘The Starry Night’ has drawn attention to the growing menace of light pollution in urban areas. 7000 kilometres away, in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, Nilesh Desai is steadily working on a public interest litigation on light pollution-disturbance due to excessive, inappropriate and misdirected artificial lights. For the last couple of years, Desai, who holds a day job in the information technology sector, has been fighting against the excessive and obtrusive glare of floodlights in his neighbourhood. He has fired…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship In September 2018, the Karnataka State Government announced an increase in ticket fares by 18 percent for both Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The reason cited: Hikes in fuel price. This met with strong opposition from civil society groups, with the Bengaluru Bus Prayanikare Vedike (BBVP), a coalition of organizations working for commuter rights, holding a ‘Commuter Ballot’ campaign at Kempegowda Bus station. 95 percent of the commuters voted against the fare hike. This was accompanied by the ‘Call Your MLA’ campaign, with citizens…

Today we have with us one of the most intriguing gods ever. He comes from a solid lineage. His father, Mahadev, is known to have caused the big bang. His mother, an excellent chef as Annapoorna, is a formidable Goddess. Well, she has a lion for her pet. His elder brother Kartikeya is the athletic types, the military commander-in –chief to be precise. Whereas he is more of a nerd. Apart from the popular stories about his legendary wisdom, he is best known for his assistance in writing the Mahabharata. Naturally, blessed are we Mumbaikars to have such an illustrious…

Today we have with us one of the most intriguing gods ever. He comes from a solid lineage. His father, Mahadev, is known to have caused the big bang. His mother, an excellent chef as Annapoorna, is a formidable Goddess. Well, she has a lion for her pet. His elder brother Kartikeya is the athletic types, the military commander-in –chief to be precise. Whereas he is more of a nerd. Apart from the popular stories about his legendary wisdom, he is best known for his assistance in writing the Mahabharata. Naturally, blessed are we Mumbaikars to have such an illustrious…

Bengaluru’s water story is full of paradoxes. After all, this is a city where even a lake catches fire. A few hours of rain can wreak havoc on the city. However, come summer, the city faces acute water shortage. It’s not even Bengaluru alone. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the Census 2011 numbers indicate that Delhi meets the water requirement of 82% of its households (population: 17 million). However, the same census numbers show that only 51% of slum-households in Delhi have access to water within their premises. The average level of ground water exploitation in Delhi is 137%,…

Urban commuting has become one of the most energy- and pollution-intensive activities in India, contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions, finds a diagnostic analysis of key cities of India by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank. The study, released at a seminar in Kolkata, made an assessment of the 14 most populous cities of India based on toxic emissions of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2), and energy consumption from urban commuting practices. These cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad (henceforth called megacities); and Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Bhopal,…

Will environmental issues finally bask in the electoral limelight? If events across some of the major Indian cities in the past few years are to go by,  it is definitely the time for green issues to shine. The environmental issues plaguing the internet-savvy electorate as well as the poor sections of these major cities may finally become an integral part of the election discourse. Over the past year, the national capital has garnered the most attention for environmental issues, compared to other major cities in the country. Cleaning of the polluted river Yamuna, considered holy by Hindus, has been a…

It no longer comes as a surprise to anyone -- the annual monsoon headlines describing how India's megapolis Mumbai is gasping to keep its head above floods caused by heavy rain, while citizens rue that there is little they can do to dam it. Still, sometimes, there are fledgling ideas that do lead to action, even if at a hyperlocal level. Radha, a citizen activist from Lokhandwala Residents' Association at an apartment in a shopping-cum-residential area got into the act immediately. She says that when her locality was getting flooded, the main cause of the excessive water was found to…