environment

In 2023, the BBMP launched Kere Mitra (lake friend) to ensure transparency in lake management. It was introduced to bridge the gap between citizens and the authorities in the daily maintenance of lakes, which fall under BBMP's custody. The Kere Mitras or lake volunteers are selected for a period of three months. While some were satisfied with the programme, others expressed their reservations about the selection process and lack of training. However, is the initiative achieving its intended goals? The BBMP seems satisfied with the applications. The next phase of Kere Mitra will not be open to new applicants. "In…

International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST), has released two reports on baseline studies of solid and plastic waste in Haridwar and Rishikesh. Both of these are Ganga cities, and understanding their waste generation and management practices are significant for Ganga rejuvenation. At the same time, the Delhi-based environmental organization, has come out with an India-specific methodology for developing solid and plastic waste inventory for Indian cities. Presenting the city reports, Chandra Bhushan, CEO of iFOREST said “One of the major challenges we faced was absence of any specific methodology to develop an inventory. This study provided us an…

Every Indian city has at least one man-made mountain where ‘waste’ generated in our homes and businesses end up. About 90% of the staggering 150,000 metric ton of urban solid wastes generated everyday make their way to such locations. Called dump yards, landfills or garbage mountains, these toxic sites are the dark underbelly of India’s bustling, glittering cities and are home and workplace for tens of thousands of people. Swacch Bharat Mission-Urban’s 2021-22 budget of INR 1,41,678 crore indicates India’s desire for cleaner cities. The budget encourages garbage free cities but makes no specific provision to improve conditions for disadvantaged communities near landfills.…

We are nearing the end of a year that none of us ever imagined we’d have to live through. So much of what we practiced, what we believed to be ‘normal’, has proved to be as vulnerable as a reed in a storm. Our lives have changed radically and so have our festivals, with restrictions galore on traditional customs, rituals and celebrations. But surely, we do not need COVID to tell us that we ought to move away from celebrations with firecrackers?  Yes, the coronavirus has indeed made that move much more pressing, creating as it does a lethal mix…

There can be no dispute over the fact that the frequency, intensity and spread (new cities getting affected) of urban floods is increasing in India. The reasons are mostly known: increasing and mostly unplanned urbanisation, rural-urban migration, encroachments of water bodies, concretization of flood plains and other lands, decreasing capacity to hold, store, recharge and drain the rainwater, increasing rainfall intensities with changing climate, wrong operation of big dams and deteriorating governance. The damages are going up, also because our forecasts are far from reliable, accurate, location-specific or with sufficient lead time. Because of our incapacity to learn lessons. Disaster…

Hyderabad lay submerged under the highest ever rainfall since 2003. While the October average has seen around 103.6 mm, October 13th saw the skies discharge 192 mm of rain, followed by another deluge in and around Hyderabad on October 17th. Added to the pandemic, the heavy rainfall made an already bad situation for Hyderabadis much, much worse. Major roads and highways were severely damaged and several colonies were isolated from the rest of the city. Hundreds of families were unable to access basic needs like drinking water, food and power for over three days following the rainfall. About 80 colonies…

Imagine 2600 trucks laden with plastic waste plying across cities, depositing them at waste processing centres to the extent that they can handle it, and merely dumping the rest at various spots. Well, that is the amount of plastic waste that India generates daily -- a massive 26000 MT of plastic waste every day. And that is precisely why solutions like those being tried out in the hill town of Dehradun may emerge as an example for all our cities, as they try to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution. Despite several regulations and policies, single-use plastic continues to…

In 2010, a 10-yr-old school girl Vipasha Srivastava, wrote a moving letter to the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court complaining about lack of recreational spaces in the state capital, Shimla. The letter triggered instant action. A Bench led by then Chief Justice Kurian Joseph (who later retired as a Supreme Court Judge) sent notices to the state’s Chief Secretary seeking answers to Vipasha’s questions. The bench termed the issues Vipasha mentioned in her letter as very important since it concerned the healthy, all-round growth of children. The Court also ordered Shimla Municipal Corporation to get funds from the…

As I was on the Outer Ring Road, I saw the welcome sight of a tree being translocated. http:// It was good to see the tree being moved so carefully, with even its chopped branches bound up. http:// I do hope this tree, and several others like it, survive in their new "homes" and help keep our city green. A salute to those who are doing such work. I would like to know, however, what the averages are for the survival of such translocated trees.

Some time ago, I documented a project by this name, where Jaaga and a team of volunteers made a determined attempt to beautify the space under Hebbal flyover. I was told that they'd also painted some other flyovers, such as the one on Richmond Circle. Here is another team, called the Ugly Indian, taking the initiative to beautify the area under other flyovers. The day I attended, we had a motley crowd of people.. from the local bigwigs, to the transgenders, to the police constables on duty... everyone had a say on how the space could be used, and everyone…