GENRE: Report

Urban growth and expansion of cities is increasing the demand for land and water, increasing pressure on resources available not only in urban, but also in peri-urban areas. State policies often use peri-urban spaces and resources to meet the needs of urban populations; for instance, they use grazing lands for urban infrastructure, sewerage and water treatment plants or for special economic zones. Water is another resource that continues to be scarce in urban areas because of the growing population and competing domestic and industrial water needs. Public infrastructure and utility services are unable to keep pace with the growing water…

In a first-of-its-kind development, private city buses in Mangalore have started making a beeline to receive biofuel made out of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) from restaurants. Biofuel researchers here are set to create a unique ecosystem for disposing hazardous UCO while also creating an eco-friendly fuel for transportation fleet. The coastal district has over 100 medium to large scale eateries, and 360 private buses plying the routes. Eight years ago, the Government of Karnataka had mooted the creation of 27 to 30 biofuel research information and demonstration centres in the state. This included a unit in Nitte village, Udupi District,…

In roughly a week from now, the city of Kolkata will be transformed into a spectacular carnival, a moving stream of countless heads, as tens of thousands descend on its roads to celebrate Durga Puja. In the capital Kolkata, this marks a magical celebration of not only the homecoming of Goddess Durga and her four children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh -- but of art, creativity and life itself.  During the festival spanning five-days, Kolkata is decked up like a bride. ‘Pandals’, which look more like film sets these days, pop up across the city, where devotees will seek…

“In this humid weather, the ride is really comfortable,” said Harivardan Thakkar, a regular commuter on Ahmedabad’s new Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), about the new electric buses introduced into the system from August 29. “Let us see how many such buses and new routes get operational as promised.” Commuters like Thakkar are understandably cautious with their reactions as a number of promises given when the BRTS was launched in 2009 are yet to be fulfilled. BRTS was introduced with the promise of being a substitute for private vehicles and ensuring last mile connectivity for passengers. Last mile connectivity is…

The intentions were noble, but as usual got derailed by poor implementation. Bhopal’s smart bicycle service, first introduced two years back, is a typical example. The main reasons for the lukewarm public response to it were the initial high rental cost, inadequate number of cycles available and poor choice of location of the cycle rental stations. The government addressed the first issue recently by cutting the one-time registration fee for renting a bike. To encourage students, women and elderly people to rent a bicycle, the earlier one-size-fits-all fee of Rs 500 was cut to Rs 50 for college students and…

With assembly elections due next February, the Arvind Kejriwal government is on a spree doling out freebies to Delhi voters. The freebies range from free electricity, free water and free WiFi to free bus rides for women. They all come with a catch, though. For instance, electricity will be free only for those consuming a maximum of 200 units every month. For those consuming 201 to 400 units, the subsidy was revised to a maximum discount of Rs 800 on the bill. Similarly, with regard to water subsidy, the limit is 20 kilolitres per month, with the consumer having to…

The Clean Buddha Nullah programme, which had become a symbol of the extreme apathy shown by successive governments towards citizens raising this issue for years, seems to have received a much-needed impetus. “The Buddha Nullah issue had been in a state of limbo for the past 30 years,” said Jaskirat Singh, State Executive Committee Member of the Naroa Punjab Manch (NPM), a citizen body formed to highlight issues related to water pollution. “It was around the time the Citizen Matters story appeared that we formed the Naroa Punjab Manch and since then we have been actively taking it up with…

25-year-old Aparajeeta Bhattacharya lives in New Town, a fast growing satellite city on the fringes of Kolkata. She works in a private company just four kilometres from her house within the New Town limits and regularly travels in the newly-introduced air-conditioned electric buses, which she says are convenient and also good for the environment. “The electric buses are almost silent and also friendly for the environment, as they do not consume fossil fuel and emit toxic gases. We should all strive to do something for a better environment,” she says, adding that the fare is also reasonable at just Rs…

For the first time ever, the largest of the flamingo species, the Greater flamingos, one of the most widely recognized waders in the world, were spotted in the newly developed Sabarmati river front in Ahmedabad, much to the delight of citizens, especially the birders’ community. “I was delighted when I spotted a huge flock of about 50 flamingos when I went for a walk on the riverfront,” said hobbyist wildlife photographer Vicky Chauhan, a chartered accountant residing just 200 metres from the riverfront. “While we have seen flamingos in areas near Ahmedabad in the Fatewadi area, this was the first…

The videos were all over the Internet and social media. Expectedly so, because you don't often see crocodiles swimming in flooded urban streets, sneaking up on strays. But that's precisely what happened shortly after news of ‘urban floods’ in Vadodara hit headlines in early August. The city witnessed scary flash floods following spells of intense rain, bringing back memories of what the city had witnessed in June 2005 and then again in the monsoon of 2014, the latter perhaps leading to the coinage of the phrase ‘urban floods’. Back in 2014, ecologists had spoken up to communicate their worries to…