GENRE: In Focus

A discussion with a difference Over the latter half of 2020, Citizen Matters commissioned a series of articles, supported by Climate Trends, to look at climate change and environmental sustainability in Tier 2 towns like Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Shimla, Rishikesh and Varanasi. Why Tier 2, one may ask. Because if and when there is a spotlight on issues of sustainability or the urban climate crisis, it is usually the metros that are at the centre of it. Air Pollution is invariably associated with Delhi/NCR, discussions around water crisis are more often than not Chennai-centric, while waste and mobility issues are mostly…

A vertical pole stands tall at the Ashok Pillar junction, right next to the bus stop. Apart from a loudspeaker, a street lighting system and a CCTV camera fixed to the pole, it also sports a Wi-Fi router. Any member of the public can access free Wi-Fi in this area for half-an-hour at the speed of 2Mbps. That’s a smart pole for you! Chennai has 50 such smart poles.  Internet service for the 50 smart poles has been provided by Airtel, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. According to a senior official from Chennai Smart City Limited, the approximate…

A scorching summer sun is the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of Chennai for many. The most common jibe at the city’s unforgiving weather is that Chennai has three seasons: hot, hotter and hottest. While Chennaiites have acclimatised themselves to the heat amidst all these jokes and memes, they have yet to embrace fully the ways to turn that into an advantage. By harnessing the power of the sun.  Solar energy as a renewable energy resource has gained immense popularity over the past decades. So much so, that Tamil Nadu is home to the largest solar…

After 10 months, Delhi reported zero COVID-related deaths on January 9th. A few days earlier, the latest and the biggest serological surgery conducted by the Delhi government had shown that about 56% of the over 28,000 people whose blood samples were collected in January developed antibodies against COVID-19.   The sharp decline in COVID-19 cases across India, except a few states including Kerala and  Maharashtra is a clear indication that India has succeeded in controlling COVID-19 to a great extent. But are we really moving towards herd immunity, and can we afford to lower our guard? “No, the virus is unpredictable and may stage a…

K K Nagar cycle track, the first dedicated space for non-motorised transport (NMT) users in Chennai was laid three years ago. Today, the track is just a pothole-filled road with several encroachments. The 17.5-km stretch from Sardar Patel Road to Island Ground is a demarcated cycle lane. But the lane gets narrower as one progresses and is even missing at a few places, leaving cyclists with no choice but to disembark and walk their cycles. Greater Chennai Traffic Police has also set up a temporary pop-up cycling lane at Kamarajar Salai, meant to be operational for two hours every morning.…

R Murugan (name changed), a nurse at the Royapettah Government Hospital, got his first dose of Covaxin at the drive held in the institution on January 16th. As a frontline worker, he was eligible to be vaccinated in the very first phase of the drive in Chennai. “Since I tend to COVID patients, it is important for me to take the vaccine and ensure that I do not pass on the viral infection to my family,” he adds.  Murugan is one of the 2,11,484 persons who got vaccinated in Tamil Nadu as of February 11th, according to data released by the…

The grass rustled suddenly about four feet from where I stood. I watched in surprise as a glistening, button-sized pink nose nudged aside the greenery on the marsh bund. Then the ball of rust-grey fur spotted me, shot out of the undergrowth, and scampered away. From a safe distance, the creature studied me and my fellow birding enthusiasts for a few seconds more, its fur glinting in the early morning sun. Was it a ruddy mongoose? I wondered. ­­­ The juxtaposition was unreal. We were standing on the busy 200 Feet Radial Road that cuts across the Pallikaranai marshland, Chennai’s…

Meerasa’s story is one of displacement. The son of a boat maker and a resident of Dhonirevu (Karimanal island), one of many villages around the Pulicat lake, Meerasa and his parents were evicted from their home in 1985 during ISRO’s Sriharikota expansion. Meerasa now lives in Jameelabad and has worked in conservation since he graduated from school. But with industrial expansion around Pulicat lake threatening the land and the mangrove forests that surround them, Meerasa fears that history might be repeating itself. About 50 km north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, is Pulicat lake, the second largest brackish water ecosystem in…

On January 17th, students of the Purvi Dilli Nagar Nigam Prathmik Vidyalaya in East Delhi, received a voice message on WhatsApp, instead of the usual worksheet or online lessons. “Namaste Bachchon… aap kaise ho?” began Vibha Singh, principal of the school. She went on to tell them that the teachers were not able to send the worksheets because they have not been paid their salaries for many months. “Because the government has not paid us salaries for many months, we are on strike,” added Vibha. “You know, don’t you, that if there is no salary it is difficult to manage…

“It was a tough time and we were really stressed and worried,” recalled Adarsh, a student pursuing law in a Dehradun college. Adarsh was one of many students who had come to study in one of Dehradun’s many educational institutions who were caught totally unprepared by the sudden lockdown last March. “We really struggled to understand the government rules and make sense of it”. The challenge, for students like Adarsh and the public at large was two fold. One, the uncertainties arising from the lockdown and two, figuring out the many government advisories in order to plan their travel back…