GENRE: In Focus

This article is part of our special series Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change in Tier II cities supported by Climate Trends. Situated on the banks of river Ganga, Varanasi, India’s holiest city and the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came into limelight in 2015, when Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data highlighted that the city didn’t have even a single good air quality day that year. In fact, Varanasi is among the 43 critically polluted zones across the country. Not just air, its water quality is equally pathetic. Pollution indices in Varanasi have only got worse with time. In…

Nirmala Mary is the sole bread winner of her five-member family. Her husband is ill and her eldest son lost his job in the fallout of the COVID-19 economic crisis. A resident of S M Nagar slum near Chennai Central, she works at a government hospital and takes home Rs 11,000 per month. A majority of her income is spent on buying essential commodities and paying rent. In such a scenario, the skyrocketing prices of vegetables in the city has been the proverbial last straw. Not just Nirmala's, but low and middle income families across the city are struggling to balance…

The cloudy skies in recent weeks had Vijaykumar Lokhande scurrying to his fields in Mhada taluka in Solapur district. A page layout artist in the city at normal times, he also does farming to supplement his earnings. “I grow pulses and millets like jowar in my five acres of land,” says Vijaykumar. “This year, I am growing tur dal and the excess rainfall helped tur. I have a job in Pune, so I decided to plant tur dal, which doesn’t require my daily presence”. Pune city gets its vegetables, pulses and milk supply from Mulshi, Solapur, Satara, Baramati, Kolhapur etc.…

Twelve-year-old Sarah vividly remembers the first stargazing trip her parents took her on, about 70 kilometers from Bengaluru, just for a glimpse of the comet Neowise. Her father, who proposed this outing, says, “When I was young, my parents would scoff at the idea of going this far just to look at the sky. Living in a city has snatched away such simple pleasures, and I had to make that effort for my little astronomer!” Stargazers aren't the only ones losing out due to the city lights. Studies all over the world have shown that long-term exposure to bright artificial…

Financially, 2020 has been a challenging year for the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). COVID-19 has left the civic body cash-strapped as a major chunk of its funds were spent on conducting fever camps, arranging shelter homes and other mitigation measures.  Even as it was battling the COVID crisis, Chennai Corporation had to cope with Cyclone Nivar and needed hundreds of crores to set up relief centres in the low-lying areas. The expenses for the GCC have increased phenomenally, but the sources of funds remain the same. In an effort to increase revenue, the Corporation is banking on one of its…

Translated by Sandhya Raju கே கே நகர் சிவன் பார்க்கில் உள்ள ஸ்கேட்டிங் ரிங் பார்த்ததுமே எட்டு வயது சிறுவன் சரத்திற்கு உற்சாகம் பொங்கும். பொது முடக்கம் அமலுக்கு வந்த சில மாதம் முன்பு வரை இதில் பயிற்சி பெற்று வந்த சரத், விளையாட்டை மேம்படுத்த ஆர்வமாக காத்திருந்தான். ஸ்கேட்டிங் உபகரணங்களை வாங்க தன் பெற்றோரை வற்புறுத்தி அனுமதியும் பெற்றிருந்தான். ஆனால் சிவன் பார்க்கில் உள்ள ஸ்கேட்டிங் ரிங்கை உபயோகிக்க சமீபத்தில் விதிக்கப்பட்ட கட்டணத்தால் பல சிறுவர்களைப் போல், சரத்தும் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளான். தற்போது பூங்கா நிர்வாகப் பணி தனியார் நிறுவனத்திடம் ஒப்படைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள நிலையில் ஒரு நாளைக்கு ஒரு மணி நேரம் ஸ்கேட்டிங் ரிங்கை பயன்படுத்த 500 ரூபாய் மாதக் கட்டணமாக அந் நிறுவனம் நிர்ணயித்துள்ளது. இதே போல் பல இடங்களில் தனியார் நிறுவனங்களிடம் ஒப்படைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள பூங்காக்களில் உள்ள பாட்மிடன் கோர்ட், ஸ்கேடிங் ரிங்க் ஆகியவற்றை பயன்படுத்த கட்டணம் நிர்ணயிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. நகரத்தில்…

On the night of November 24th, a fire broke out at the Ghazipur landfill site in the capital, burning for over 24 hours till it could be brought under control and choking an already severely polluted city. As citizens coughed and struggled to breathe, we called Dr Ajay Nagpure, Head, Air Quality and Sustainable Urbanisation, World Resources Institute Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities, and this is what he said: “The air pollution caused by gases emitted from the landfill affects the birth weight of children born to those residing in the vicinity of the landfill. Even child mortality will be very…

Eight-year-old Sarath's eyes light up at the sight of the skating rink at Sivan Park in K K Nagar. He had been using the facility for a few months before the lockdown and was eager to continue improving his balance and form. He had even persuaded his parents to buy him skating gear. Sarath is one of the many children who have been affected by the recent imposition of charges on the use of the skating facility at Sivan Park. The private contractor who has been entrusted with maintenance of the facility inside the park now charges Rs 500 per…

On a busy noon last week, as Kavya, 63, was scouting for medicine for her husband at the Yusuf Sarai market in south Delhi, she noticed that salesmen in many drug stores were either without masks, or were not covering their nose and mouth. The elbowing crowd of customers, too, were not wearing masks. “I got terribly scared and was virtually in tears,” says a frightened Kavya as she rushed out of the shop. This market is lined with more than 50 drug stores as two big hospitals—AIIMS and the Safdarjung—are in proximity.  At the giant commercial-cum-office complex at Nehru…

The festive season of December brings no joy to Jenni Susan this year. A student of Class 10 in a reputed Chennai school affiliated to the state board, Jenni has attended all classes, taken notes and written tests online. But despite her best efforts, she is not prepared enough to write the Board examinations, should they be held in March as usual. Jenni's school, like many others in the city, has not completed the entire syllabus as outlined at the beginning of the year. And as the new year is about to start, panic grips the 16-year-old girl. She has…