Category: Environment

From the Western Expressway Highway if you turn left, you start to see mangroves beyond which lies the Mithi river. Go further towards the Kala Killa bus depot at Dharavi, and you will see a green fence beyond which lies an urban forest. This is the Maharashtra Nature Park that the Maharashtra Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) built with the support of the NGO World Wide Fund for Nature India, starting from 1983. Architect Shriya Bhatia cites this as an example of blue green infrastructure (BGI). Built on a former garbage dumping ground, the park houses indigenous plant varieties and an…

Every afternoon, Nanda Kumar makes a difficult choice. He parks his bike outside his home in Chennai and suspends work, losing up to ₹800 a day. The 27-year-old Ola and Uber rider isn’t on a break for leisure, though. A brutal heatwave and a recent heat stroke that landed him in the hospital for two days cost him over ₹10,000 in medical bills and lost wages. Since then, he has been forced to stay off the roads during the afternoon hours. “I can’t ride between 12 and 4 pm in the summer months. The heat is just unbearable,” he says. …

Once known for its pleasant climate, Bengaluru now faces a climate crisis. Rapid urbanisation, vehicular emissions, and construction dust have led to hazardous air pollution, with PM2.5 and PM10 levels endangering health. Rising temperatures, water scarcity, vanishing green cover, and rampant concretisation have intensified the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Erratic rainfall and groundwater depletion further threaten a water emergency, affecting households across the city. The Bengaluru Climate Action and Resilience Plan (BCAP) was introduced in November 2023 to build adaptation and resilience against climate change, but implementation gaps persist. The absence of a dedicated climate budget, lack of transparency…