RPB

In January 2017, I joined CAG, specifically to work on solid waste management (SWM) projects. I started with the Mapping Waste Trails project, which aims to gain a better understanding of the lives of the informal waste pickers engaged in waste recycling in Chennai. Furthermore, we will be tracking the movements of certain recyclables, to ascertain the routes by which such materials traverse the city-scape, and the value added within each step in the routes. Although waste management is key to the sustainable development of the city, preventing the issue arising at the source is paramount. As India continues to…

It’s July now and the temperature is slowly dipping in Delhi. Only a few migratory birds wintered at the Yamuna biodiversity park remain. Others have left for Central Asia and Siberia. Some species of summer terrestrial migrants are expected to arrive while some others can be seen enjoying the park’s wetlands. “Red-crested pochard, a magnificent bird with a red head and an orange beak, has left,” says Sameer Gautam, an education officer at the park and an avid ornithologist. “The arrival of this bird after a gap of over 15 years was a great feat and is indicative of how…

For long, Information Technology was the blue-eyed poster boy of Indian industry. It brought in foreign exchange, employed millions and made sure we were part of the new world. Manufacturing, which had kept Tamil Nadu going for decades, was suddenly passé and lost its sheen. Nobody wanted to work with machines, in factory spaces, filled with unionised labour. In contrast to that, the world of IT was hugely attractive. But that scenario may soon change, for the worse. The nature of the industry has suddenly undergone a change. Gone are the days when IT companies required millions of coders, 50…

Wrong information is being put out on the official Metropolitan Transport Corporation of Chennai MTC website, www.mtcbus.org, on the routes that it operates. The website itself is unfriendly and the design is years old. While MTC operates several ‘small bus’ routes, it has wrongly prefixed regular routes with S in the database, while not giving information on Small Bus routes. For example, the regular route 7E is prefixed as S07E from Broadway to Ambattur Estate. S26 has been listed as if it is a small bus, when in fact it is route 26, from Broadway to Iyyappanthangal. Such wrong information given…

Last Saturday, I was on my way to a workshop 'In My Name - Open Letters in the Park' organized by the Fearless Collective, when I became a witness to an incident of violence and joined others in resisting it. Unlikely coincidence or a sign of our times? I feel that this incident can best be described through the Open Letter I wrote later at the workshop. Dear Advocates, I don't know you and you don't know me. Our paths crossed coincidentally this morning (15th July 2017) when I entered Cubbon Park at the Hudson Circle gate (near the High…

It’s not every day that you hear of a municipal waste dumping ground that is a tourist attraction. But in Vengurla taluka, a half-hour drive from India’s tourist hub of Goa, it isn’t just the pristine beaches that are drawing people. In 2017 so far, the municipal waste dumping ground, where every piece of waste is recycled, has received 7,000 visitors. They’re travelling to see how the small municipality is recycling 7 tonnes of waste generated each day and transforming their community. It is earning a hefty income, which is being ploughed back into municipal activities. In 2015, under the watchful eye…

It’s a blazing summer with a drought compounding it. Most of Chennai’s roads are devoid of any kind of tree cover and with the heat radiating from the sky, the buildings, the roads and the vehicles make for a local version of hell. At a time like this, it is with a pang that I read a report of the Municipal Corporation of Madras, dating to 1868. It has, among other things, a page on how the civic body set about creating tree cover along certain roads in the city, thereby qualifying them as avenues. The part of Mount Road…

Pune has a story similar to many other cities in India that grew exponentially without much warning. The unplanned development hit the water resources badly, increasing the city’s dependence on groundwater. Now, the city experiences water scarcity every year, even when the monsoons have been plentiful. Although the authorities have assured the citizens of adequate water storage in the dams and fewer water cuts this year, long-term, sustainable solutions still evade all political discourses. The good news, however, is that the citizens and the housing societies have now started coming forward to work around the problem and advocate changes at…

Fig. 3.5.1: East View of Bangalore in 1792 AD by Robert Hyde Colebrooke, British Library, Shelfmark - WD4461 Courtesy: Yashaswini Sharma Were there waterways inside Lal Bagh once upon a time? How did the famous garden get the unique design? How did the famous glass house came to be in it? This chapter from a book on Bangalore's early history — Bangalore - the early city - AD 1537-1799, authored by Yashaswini Sharma, an architect from Bengaluru, to be released on June 4, 2016, at the British Council, Bangalore, provides some insights. Exclusive images collected from archives make it an…

Bayview Apartments, a multi-storeyed residential complex located in Besant Nagar, Chennai consists of 140 flats in five blocks. Each block in the complex, which was built in 1988, has an open well. Since the community was able to access sufficiently good water within its premises, the residents have been meeting their needs with this well water, and have skipped going to the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) for their water connection. Skipping the municipal supplier's services has made the residents prone to a higher risk of being without water, but they have managed so far. In 1999,…