GENRE: Features

In the late 1980s, when the term “waste management” had not gained much currency in Indian cities, a banker-turned-environmental activist M B Nirmal started a cleanliness movement in Chennai. Called the Civic Exnora, it was considered as one of the largest environmental and civic movements having happened in the urban India. Civic Exnora was founded in 1989 by M B Nirmal who was then an officer with the Indian Overseas Bank. Exnora was started in an attempt to create awareness about cleanliness. Back in the 90s, the organisation played a major role in motivating and involving neighbourhoods in systematic waste…

Every time I visited the Wazirabad Bundh site to watch a lush linear forest taking shape in the middle of our city, the dirty storm water drain would bother me no end. iamgurgaon – a citizens’ movement focused on improving every aspect of life in the Millennium City – had been working on the bundh for a year and a half and it was clear that the work would remain incomplete if this drain full of debris and plastic was not cleared. The drain was such an eye sore that I decided to seek permission to clean the 200 metres…

Bengaḷūru, today, is bursting at its seams trying to provide for a population well beyond the capacity of its infrastructure. One would assume any proposed remedy would refer to planning methods adopted in the early settlements and respond to the city’s unique topography. Instead, the authorities concerned seem to have divorced themselves from local wisdom as they go about creating land parcels catering to commercial, and opportunistic interests, ignoring heritage and ecology. A few years ago, when I started my research on Bengaḷūru, the journey took me to the oldest labyrinths of the city, the past reached out across the…

As Indian cities expand at breakneck speed, they gobble up surrounding villages at a blistering pace. Mumbai is no different.  However, if you look for it, you will still find traces of several villages, older than the city itself, that have survived the onslaught of urbanisation. Some maintain their way of life, because they are fishing villages and depend on the sea for survival. Others are not so lucky and have become sites for low-income housing in a city where real estate is one of the most expensive in the country. These images bring us snatches of life from a…

In January this year, the organising committee members of Urur Kuppam and Alcot Kuppam, had planned to host a Carnatic music concert and a Chennai Corporation Band performance on Besant Nagar beach during the Marghazhi Festival. Little did they suspect that organising these events would lead to a protracted tussle with the government for the next six months. Applying for permission The two concerts were scheduled for January 29th and February 4th at the Besant Nagar beach. The committee members approached the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) for the necessary permission. But after making several visits to the offices of the…

India’s largest city, and the eighth largest globally, Mumbai houses more than 1.2 crore people according to Census 2011. The city traffic has a notorious image, with frequent traffic jams being reported routinely in the media. However, the Draft Development Plan for Greater Mumbai 2014-2034 conveys a different story of how the city moves. The plan reveals that more than half of the city uses non-motorised modes of transport such as walking and cycling (51%). 42% of the trips are catered to by public modes of transport, including trains, buses, auto rickshaws etc, while the share of cars, two-wheelers and…

Over the last few years, many of Bengaluru’s lakes have gone through rejuvenation processes as described in the first part of this series, that completely transforms and restores lakes to beautiful common areas and thriving ecosystems. Behind every lake is a group of community members pushing for rejuvenation, government assistance or simply rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty in an effort to save a lake. Transforming a dead or dying lake is no small feat. Many hands have their stake in the rejuvenation. For many lakes, the rejuvenation process is a result of local community members and…

Every year,  on average, 150000 Indians are diagnosed to be suffering from blood cancers and diseases such as Lymphoma, Myelodysplasia, Thalassaemia, Aplastic anaemia, Sickle cell anaemia etc. For those afflicted, Bone Marrow Transplantation is the last resort. In 2016, however, only around 600 people could go for such transplant, which means that more than 1,40,000 or more people stared at an end with effectively no treatment. But why is it so difficult for patients with the above diseases to avail transplantation treatment? This is because the patient needs matching bone marrow from a healthy donor whose HLA type matches that…

A decade ago, sewage flowed where water once did, in the lakebed of Bengaluru’s Puttenahalli Lake. Today it is 13-acres of clean water, a diverse ecosystem and a peaceful area for community members. It is a shining example of a successful lake rejuvenation, a movement more complicated than it may seem. Apart from being public commons and beautiful displays of nature, lakes are essential for groundwater recharge and rainwater collection, important to Bengaluru especially in the days of water shortage. Rain water canals connect lakes to each other, thus lakes end up sinking a lot of groundwater, while excess of…

It seemed like a bright sunny day. A working woman in her late thirties, left Powai for Matunga by Uber at 7.30 a.m. The route normally takes 45 minutes. But yesterday it took a little longer than usual, around 75 minutes. The rain gods had by then showcased a trailer of what was going to be an adventurous day. Even then, never had I thought that I would return to the cosy comfort of my home only after more than 24 hours! As a Mumbaikar, you can feel the vibe when rain, or for that matter anything, rises above the…