essay on environmental problems in mumbai

Climate Change Is Stretching Mumbai to Its Limit

Facing sea-level rise, flooding, and landslides, the city’s residents are finding resilience—because they have little other choice.

R ain had been falling for several hours on the night of July 18, 2021, when the Tiwaris called their relatives and told them to evacuate their house.

The Tiwaris live in suburban Mumbai, in the hillside shantytown of Surya Nagar, and their relatives were perched in one of a row of single-room tenements atop the steep terrain. Some of those homes had collapsed in a landslide two years earlier and had been recently rebuilt. Now, as the rain thundered on, the Tiwaris began to worry.

Suddenly, the slope disintegrated into a torrent of mud and rock, the sound of the slide drowned out by the heavy rain. Before the Tiwaris’ relatives could make it to safety, their ceiling collapsed. Mud and debris washed down to the Tiwaris’ door. They struggled to get out of their own house, and then out of their narrow lane. By the end of the night, 10 people in Surya Nagar, including three children, had been crushed to death. The Tiwaris lost three family members, and 21 more lives were lost in another landslide nearby.

By the end of last year’s monsoon season , an estimated 50 Mumbai residents had died in landslides or wall and house collapses triggered by heavy rain—one of the city’s worst tolls in recent memory.

In the geography of climate risk, some places are more vulnerable than others, and coastal megacities like Mumbai face the combined threat of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. As their populations expand—by 2050, most of the world’s people will live in urban areas—the paving over of permeable soil for houses and roads further increases the risk of flooding.

Like the rest of India, Mumbai is no stranger to what headline writers like to call “monsoon fury.” The city receives an average of about 94 inches of rain annually, more than double New York’s rainfall, and most of it arrives during the four-month rainy season. For years, the city and its residents have met the monsoon with precautionary measures including the clearing of municipal drains and the plastering of leaky roofs.

Those measures have never been quite enough: The season has long been marked by disruptions in train services, upticks in water-borne diseases, and occasional landslides and building collapses. Mumbaikars have tolerated these hazards in exchange for the economic opportunity offered by India’s commercial capital. People here are known for getting back to work quickly after a disaster, whether the disaster is a terrorist strike or a deluge.

But climate change could stretch Mumbai’s fortitude to its limits. Severe flooding used to occur once every few years. Now, intense-rainfall events occur almost every year. As the number of cyclones in the Arabian Sea increases, sea levels rise, and the city continues to sprawl over floodplains and hills—from 1991 to 2018, the city lost 58 percent of its already limited open space—Mumbai is routinely ranked high on lists of the world’s cities most vulnerable to climate impacts.

City authorities, now finalizing a climate action plan, must confront long-standing inadequacies in housing, drainage, and sanitation, and resolve historical tensions between development interests and environmental protection. Working-class communities in hillside areas such as Surya Nagar may have to think about eventual relocation, however difficult. At every level, Mumbai is facing new dangers and new decisions.

L ike many coastal settlements , Mumbai stands on land hewn from water. In the 18th and 19th centuries, British colonists leveled the hills on the small islands of what is now called the Mithi River estuary, using the resulting debris to join the archipelago into a narrow peninsula on the northwest coast of India.

One British official, describing how the original seven islands had been shaken loose from the mainland by tectonic shifts, suggested that the reclamation was fated. “Providence … decreed,” he wrote, “they should be once more united by the genius and energy of man.”

Despite the location’s challenges—malarial swamps, a lack of fresh water, and the need to build bunds and embankments to protect areas at or below sea level—the city became one of the most important ports in the region, a magnet for trade, industry, and labor. “Is it not an astounding feat,” marveled an Indian writer in 1863, “to recover the land from the sea and make it habitable and free of disease and earn lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of rupees in the process?”

During the 20th century, Mumbai expanded to accommodate its growing economy and population. More creeks, streams, and mangroves began to vanish under roads, buildings, and sewage. But every year, the rivers reminded the city of their existence. From June to September, the southwest monsoon sweeps up the west coast of India and into the hinterlands, filling lakes and reconnecting rivers with the sea. For Mumbai, one of the world’s most crowded cities, the season’s cool, clean air and leafy shade is a relief—but it’s also a warning, especially in neighborhoods where the tides once flowed.

The city’s defensive rituals, already well established, have multiplied in recent years. Before the monsoon, people buy umbrellas and plastic footwear. Apartment-building owners and residents repair or waterproof their walls and roofs. During the monsoon, shops in low-lying neighborhoods remove merchandise from the bottom shelves. Commuters brace for traffic or train disruptions and parents look out for school cancellations.

All kinds of improvised measures are on display in Kranti Nagar, a settlement of old and new migrants sandwiched between the airport and a series of metal scrap yards on the banks of the Mithi River. On a weekday in September, the sky is gray and the ground dark from a morning drizzle. Tarpaulins cover Kranti Nagar’s roofs, and clothes are hanging out to dry as best they can. Inside the maze of single- and double-story brick-and-tin tenements, it’s impossible to tell that a river runs nearby. But the residents know.

In a tiny room close to the river, Ranju Devi, a mother of two, reaches up to the light switch just above her head, a little more than five feet from the ground. That’s how high the water can rise, she tells me, when high tides and heavy rain combine and the river swells beyond its banks. Devi and her husband store the family’s clothes and documents on a high shelf so that important possessions don’t get ruined. When the water rises, they take their children and some food to the municipal school, which is located on higher ground nearby. Sometimes, they have to move quickly—one night, she says, she woke up to water at her feet.

The Sonar family, a few twisting lanes away, can afford a double-story tenement. They watch the news for weather alerts and know their escape routine: first switch off their lane’s power mains, then move their belongings and themselves upstairs. On the second floor, they’re protected from electrocution and drowning, but they’re still exposed to the chemicals and sewage in the floodwaters, which cause outbreaks of gastroenteritis, and the malaria and dengue that spread as the water stagnates. But Tulsa Sonar, the family matriarch, doesn’t see a way out of the neighborhood: Kranti Nagar is in the heart of the city, surrounded by schools, hospitals, small factories, and offices. A family of 11, the Sonars would either have to pay three to five times as much to live in more secure housing in the same area or endure long commutes to the city’s schools and jobs. Besides, their local elected representative has promised them a safer home nearby.

The Sonars first moved here from Nepal in search of work in the mid-’70s, when Tulsa was a teenager, and she says there was less flooding then. The problems started when the regional planning agency reclaimed hundreds of acres of mangrove-covered floodplains downstream and covered the newly elevated land with glass-and-steel office complexes. Then airport authorities extended the airport’s runways, narrowing and bending the Mithi River. More settlements and small factories rose along the riverbanks, their sewage and effluent further choking the river’s flow. More recently, the city raised the main road near Kranti Nagar, creating a steep slope to the riverbank settlements.

Some wealthy neighborhoods face flooding too. In a prosperous seaside housing development in the western suburb of Khar, ground-floor residents such as Shalini Balsavar move their clothes and valuables to higher shelves during the monsoon. Balsavar has swapped her wooden furniture for sofas and tables with aluminum legs. Flooding in the area started in the ’80s and ’90s, her daughter Reetha tells me, when settlements and residential buildings replaced mangrove stands along the shore, reducing the capacity of the land to drain water. In the 2000s, the problem was aggravated when the city raised the main road, increasing water flow into the Balsavars’ property. Some ground-floor residents in the area have left, while others hope to add extra floors to their building.

The Balsavars own all three floors of their building, so during a bad flood, Shalini can easily move to safety. “We have an alternative,” says Reetha, who lives on the second floor. “Others are not so lucky.”

That “luck” is becoming more important. Instead of steady rain through the monsoon season, Mumbai now experiences more days of heavy rainfall, defined as more than two and a half inches in 24 hours, interspersed with long dry breaks. Throughout western India, extreme-precipitation events increased threefold from 1950 to 2015 due to an increase in atmospheric moisture from a warming Arabian Sea. Research suggests that the short bursts of extreme rain that trigger flash floods and landslides will continue to increase as temperatures rise. The city itself may amplify these trends: Local scientists have found that clusters of concrete structures generate warmer temperatures and atmospheric instability that could be intensifying monsoon rainfall.

And there are new threats: From 2001 to 2019, rising ocean temperatures led to a 52 percent increase in the region’s cyclone frequency and a 150 percent increase in the number of very severe storms, while cyclone duration increased by 80 percent. Mumbai has not suffered a serious hit from a cyclone since 1948, but a few storms have recently come close.

For reasons scientists don’t fully understand, the monsoon season is also ending later, meaning that city residents must stay vigilant into the fall. “We’ve never been flooded in October,” says Kranti Nagar’s Tulsa Sonar, “but this year, who can tell?”

O n July 26, 2005 , three feet of rain fell on Mumbai, taking more than a thousand lives in flash floods and landslides and causing millions of dollars in damages. In many areas, residents were rescued from rooftops and couldn’t return home for days. Though flooding had been increasing for a decade, the deluge awakened Mumbaikars to the geography of their city—its hemmed-in streams and rivers and its vulnerability to the tides—and the dangers of the monsoon.

Since 2005, civic authorities have spent more and more money on flood-mitigation measures, largely due to prodding from citizens’ groups and judicial orders. In recent years, they’ve begun installing floodgates and pumping stations along parts of the seashore—only six of the city’s 174 stormwater outfalls lie above the high-tide line, so when heavy rain combines with high tide, gates are needed to stop tidal inflow and pumps must physically push rainwater out. Authorities have also set up smaller water pumps along parts of the Mithi River and are experimenting with large underground tanks designed to catch and store water below one of the city’s lowest-lying areas. A long-delayed plan to expand the capacity of the city’s century-old stormwater drains has been revived and updated. And the desilting and unclogging of open drains, streams, and rivers increases every year: By the end of last year’s monsoon, workers planned to remove nearly 220,000 tons of gunk from the Mithi. The city has built retaining walls along some rivers and has improved weather monitoring and disaster-response systems. Now when high tide coincides with heavy rain, evacuation alerts are issued to riverside settlements such as Kranti Nagar.

No one knows the limitations of these measures better than Mahesh Narvekar, the head of the municipality’s disaster-management unit. Set up in 2000, the unit became active after the 2005 floods and has been expanding since. The department now runs a state-of-the-art control room in the municipal headquarters, where staff monitor feeds from 60 automated weather stations; 147 hospitals; 5,000 CCTVs; and social media.

During the monsoon season, staff must coordinate responses to instances such as landslides, housing collapses, tree falls, and power outages. Inside the department’s headquarters, an official shows me old CCTV footage of a tree falling on a moving car; passersby leap into action to rescue the motorist. In another video, a car drifts into a flooded street while bystanders watch to see if they need to intervene. “See how our Mumbaikars respond,” the officer remarks proudly, adding that more people should receive emergency training.

Over the past two decades, the unit has dealt with not only floods and landslides but multiple terrorist strikes and a global pandemic. “Disaster response is okay; we can do it. We have the experience,” Narvekar says. But he’s worried about the future. Though the department is working to communicate more quickly with local residents, expand backup-power supplies, and improve its hazard mapping, that may not be enough to protect residents from possible superstorms, or the roughly six inches of sea-level rise expected by 2050.

Even expanded drains and river dredging can do only so much. “How much can you expand [stormwater] pipes and widen streams in a city that’s so densely developed?” he asks. What’s needed, he believes, is a paradigm shift—a climate-adaptation plan equal to Mumbai’s future. “You can’t stop excess inundation,” he says. “The whole city must become a drain.”

O n August 27 , state environment and tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray, the environment and tourism minister of the state of Maharashtra, launched the Mumbai Climate Action Plan website in coordination with municipal officials, touting it as the first such initiative of its kind in urban India and South Asia. At the launch, the municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, noted that most of July’s rainfall had fallen in just four days and that cyclones in the region were increasing in frequency. He warned, rather hyperbolically, that much of the office and government district, located in the historic southern tip of the city, could be “underwater” by 2050. Climate change “has come to our doorstep,” he said.

The India office of the Washington, D.C.–based World Resources Institute was entrusted with helping design the climate plan, and its first step was to hold a series of public consultations with local groups and experts. Lubaina Rangwala, the program head of the urban-development-and-resilience team at WRI India, told me in September that her objective was to come up with a “high-level road map” rather than a detailed plan. Engineering solutions such as sea walls, pumps, and underground tanks are important, she says. But like Narvekar, the head of the disaster-management unit, she doubts they will suffice in the long run. “Infrastructure is designed for certain thresholds,” she says. “A tank has a capacity; it can hold a certain amount of water until the tide ebbs and the water can drain.” But if rainfall or tides are extreme, that capacity may fall short, she notes. “The uncertainty of extreme occurrences is what makes us believe that [engineering solutions] won’t be enough.”

In recent years, local architects and researchers have pointed out that walls and other barriers can harden the battle lines between land and water, and have argued that the rivers and sea need to be integrated into the urban landscape—by, for instance, maintaining natural riverbanks that can help absorb overflow. “We do need to see the city as an estuary,” Rangwala says. “We need to think about the percolative nature of the land, and about protecting the natural infrastructures of mudflats and wetlands.”

Development interests have long stood in the way of such measures. After the 2005 disaster, for instance, a high-level state-government committee laid out a series of measures for mitigating floods. Although the city implemented engineering solutions such as pumps, drains, and retaining walls, the recommendations that carried even short-term costs for development interests—such as flood-risk zoning around waterways that would affect the real-estate market—were ignored.

Rangwala acknowledges that in a city driven by commerce, systematic reforms are difficult. But she thinks the political moment is ripe for progress, and not only because of the new global attention on climate change. “We used to say environment was anti-development; now we talk of the two in tandem,” she says. “That change has happened with this [state] government coming in.”

Thackeray, the state environment minister, is a scion of one of Mumbai’s most prominent political families. His grandfather founded the Shiv Sena, a nativist party known for decades for its attacks on migrants from the rest of the country. In 2019, the party took power in the state government after a prolonged tussle with the Bharatiya Janata Party, its erstwhile ally and the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Though the Shiv Sena has dominated the city’s government for two decades, its greater power in the state—along with the rise of new, younger leaders—appears to be reshaping its agenda. Thackeray’s father, Uddhav, the head of the state government, enjoys wildlife photography, and his sons are also interested in ecology: Thackeray’s younger brother, Tejas, a wildlife researcher, has discovered several new species—including a swamp eel, a snake, and a lizard—in the state’s lush and underdocumented Western Ghats mountain range.

The younger Thackerays’ interest in the environment is partly generational, says D. Parthasarathy, a sociology professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, an elite research institution. Young people in India and around the world are more concerned about climate change and environmental issues, and 31-year-old Aaditya was one of the few state-level Indian politicians to attend the COP26 talks at Glasgow. But the agenda is also politically strategic: Before they took office, both Aaditya and his father backed a popular residents’ movement to save a piece of suburban forest from an infrastructure project, much to the annoyance of their then-allies. They promised to clean up a massive and polluting landfill in another part of the city that had become a political issue for the local community. “The [state] government came to power on such issues,” Parthasarathy says. “They are under pressure to fulfill their promises too.”

That doesn’t mean they can or will break with business as usual in Mumbai. The Shiv Sena government is not halting one of the city’s most controversial and expensive projects, a 29-kilometer coastal freeway along Mumbai’s western waterfront. The road has been opposed by environmentalists and architects who believe it could lead to coastal erosion and flooding while serving relatively few commuters, and by local fishing communities that say their fishing grounds are being destroyed by extensive reclamation. It’s also not clear how the government will handle recently relaxed national-government regulations that permit more development along the coastline. Political parties need funds, points out Parthasarathy, which makes it risky for them to alienate the city’s wealthy developers. He adds that infrastructure projects have their own political logic: “There’s an imagination to [infrastructure], a sense that it represents modernity.”

M ore than a month after the landslide that killed their relatives, the Tiwaris were still staying with friends in a nearby community. But their neighbors, the Vishwakarmas, had returned home to Surya Nagar, ignoring the warning that the city had pasted on their door. They are a three-generation family of seven. “How long can we stay with friends?” shrugged 29-year-old Sudhir Vishwakarma, the youngest son.

Sudhir and his friends were among the first responders to the landslide; they helped evacuate people and, later, dig out bodies. Ambulances and earth movers couldn’t access the site without destroying homes. The boys didn’t sleep for days, and hardly ate. Since then, every time it rains at night, families in the neighborhood keep their doors open and call out to one another.

Many climate-adaptation projects talk of making cities and communities more “resilient,” more able to cope with or adapt to extreme events like floods and heat waves. But without accompanying efforts to address social vulnerabilities, initiatives to increase resilience can place the burden of adaptation on individuals and on local communities, especially in developing countries, Parthasarathy says.

Mumbaikars’ ability to help one another in times of crisis or bounce back after a disaster is often celebrated by political leaders and the media. But “the spirit of resilience exists out of compulsion,” Parthasarathy says, “because the state is not doing its job. The people must cope somehow.” Resilience also has hidden costs, he adds. Even people who respond stoically to chronic hazards—“water comes and water goes,” as one resident of Kranti Nagar told me—lose time and money in dealing with them, and may sacrifice their health. Interruptions in schooling become more frequent, and saving money becomes more difficult. “People who are busy surviving aren’t able to invest in the future,” Parthasarathy says.

Parthasarathy prefers to use the word transformation . Instead of adapting to and coping with a particular hazard, he says, “we need to reimagine the city and the idea of development.” His research group is working with officials and local groups on a mangrove-restoration project to achieve both environmental and social objectives. Mangroves can mitigate flooding while also providing a livelihood to local fishers, he notes.

For the people of Surya Nagar and Kranti Nagar, transformation might mean moving to safe and affordable housing elsewhere in the city. Because of the lack of affordable options, people who are evicted from hazardous neighborhoods often go and live in even more vulnerable ones, notes Roshni Nuggehalli, the executive director of YUVA, a nonprofit that works with the urban poor. Over the past few decades, the government has tried to incentivize developers to rehabilitate informal dwellings—but many of the resulting housing projects have been poorly constructed or unsanitary. “What we need to address is not the climate event,” Nugehalli says, “but the systemic things that aggravate the climate event.”

A fter the landslide in Surya Nagar , city authorities quickly announced compensation to the families of those who died—several hundred thousand rupees per life, enough to support a poor family for a year or two but of little comfort to the bereaved. One man lost his wife and two children; he survived only because he happened to be working that night. “If there are no people, what’s the point of money?” asks Jaya, Sudhir’s sister-in-law.

When Sudhir’s late father moved here from northern India more than 30 years ago, the neighborhood was set among forested hills and mangrove stands and surrounded by new factories with jobs for migrant workers. He built a good life for his wife and children, and Sudhir, now an engineer, is one of the first professionals in the family. But he still can’t afford to live in the upscale residential complexes that now crowd the neighborhood.

Sudhir and his neighbors don’t know much about climate change, but they do sense that their home is becoming more dangerous. Many point out that though the 2017 landslide took two lives, last summer’s took 10. (Local officials and politicians likely knew of the danger: In early 2021, an internal report warned of the risk to precariously perched settlements in the area.) Yet most are not ready to leave the neighborhood. Nearby homes down the slope or on level ground are more expensive, and the pandemic’s toll on income and work has put them even further out of reach. Cheaper digs are distant. What they want is for the municipality to protect Surya Nagar with a strong retaining wall. And they seem likely to get it: After the landslide, Aaditya Thackeray directed authorities to speed up retaining-wall construction in unstable areas.

Yet a wall did not help Ambedkar Nagar, a much poorer settlement on the other side of the hill. Its shanties stand above a network of apartment complexes, and just below a water reservoir surrounded by forest. In the 2010s, authorities built a 15-foot-high boundary wall to protect the reservoir from urban expansion. But on one extremely rainy night in 2019, water built up behind the barrier and then broke through. The torrent, carrying chunks of concrete, swept away the bamboo and tarpaulin shanties below, killing about 30 people and injuring another 130. Later, an audit commissioned by the city found that the wall had been poorly designed and constructed. Eighty-six families who had lost homes and relatives were rehoused in low-income developments on the other side of the city; 75 more are still waiting to be relocated.

A few residents have refused to move, including Bomba Devi, a mother of three. When she came to Ambedkar Nagar in the mid-’90s, it was not unusual for leopards from the nearby forest to prowl the hillside. Though she lost a young granddaughter in the flash flood of 2019, she rejected the alternative housing because it was located next to chemical plants and a refinery, and residents there had already fallen ill. (Residents’ health problems were so serious that they sued, resulting in a court decision that blocked the city from relocating people to the area.) Besides, her son works in the local packing firm and her grandchildren go to the nearby public school. To protect her home, she and her children have created small channels and drains in the mud floor that direct the water downstream. Even so, their home is flooded with a foot of water every year.

In May, a cyclone brought record rain and winds strong enough to dislodge some boulders above the neighborhood. The residents took refuge in a clearing of sorts—a slightly elevated, flat patch of land kept dry with a thatched roof and strategically dug channels. It was safer than being inside their homes, says Moli Sheikh, Bomba Devi’s neighbor, adding, “We draw strength from being together.”

The morning I visited, more than a dozen residents were sitting in the clearing, participating in an ongoing sit-in. They are demanding that the wall be rebuilt and alternative housing be provided nearby. Many of them had paid into a public-housing scheme intended to provide them with new homes, but so far they have received nothing. “Every time there’s an incident, they come and do a survey” of the damage done and the families that need to be relocated, Sheikh says, pointing to the row of numbers that officials have chalked on his door. “What are they waiting for?”

This Atlantic Planet story was supported by the HHMI Department of Science Education.

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Mangroves help fight the effects of climate change. so why is mumbai destroying them.

Sushmita Pathak

Mangroves by the water in Mumbai. Bhaskar Paul/The India Today Group/Getty Images hide caption

Mangroves by the water in Mumbai.

Why Mumbai Needs More Mangroves

Bare trees with slender branches line a half-built highway overpass in eastern Mumbai. These are mangroves, trees or shrubs found in tropical swampy marshland with roots that grow above the ground. But construction has blocked their lifeblood — salt water. Their aerial roots poke through dry, caked mud instead of brackish water.

Environmentalist B.N. Kumar points to a small channel under the highway where seawater once entered the mangrove patch. It's now littered with rocks and construction debris.

"All the mangroves, about 5,000 of them, have dried up. They can only be used as firewood now," Kumar says. "It's very sad to see these mangroves dying like this."

The roots of mangroves, poking through swamp mud, serve as breeding areas for fish. Sushmita Pathak/NPR hide caption

The roots of mangroves, poking through swamp mud, serve as breeding areas for fish.

Thousands of acres of velvety green mangroves line the border between the Arabian sea and the city of Mumbai in western India. They act as natural buffers against coastal erosion and flooding, and they store up to four times as much carbon as other forests. With sea level rise inevitable, Mumbai's mangroves are more important now than ever. A new report by climate change researchers predicts much of Mumbai, which is India's financial capital, will be underwater by 2050 if global carbon emissions aren't reduced. The city, originally a cluster of seven islands, is especially vulnerable. Many parts of it have been built by reclaiming land from the sea.

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Mangroves, climate change and hurricanes.

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"At a time when we require more and more mangroves, we are destroying, unfortunately, more and more mangroves," Kumar says.

Studies show that Mumbai lost nearly 40 percent of its mangroves between 1991 and 2001 — about 9,000 acres. And rapid urbanization continues to threaten them.

A short car ride from the dried mangroves along the highway, a municipal garbage truck dumps trash on the edge of a mangrove patch. Sludge and plastic waste cover the roots of the mangroves, slowly choking them. In another area nearby, hundreds of acres of mangroves are being cut for the construction of the Navi Mumbai international airport.

Mangroves (green) were plentiful in this Google Earth image from Nov. 12, 2003 showing the site of the future Navi Mumbai International Airport (left). By Nov. 12, 2019 (right), the development work for the airport had wiped out hundreds of acres of mangroves. Google Maps hide caption

Mangroves (green) were plentiful in this Google Earth image from Nov. 12, 2003 showing the site of the future Navi Mumbai International Airport (left). By Nov. 12, 2019 (right), the development work for the airport had wiped out hundreds of acres of mangroves.

One of India's most glamorous infrastructure projects, the country's first bullet train — which will run between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat — is estimated to destroy at least 32,000 mangroves .

Journalist-turned-activist Kumar, who runs a blog called The Nature Connect , has raised concerns about mangrove destruction with authorities, including the Japanese government agency that is helping build the bullet train. Kumar and other activists organized an exhibition in Mumbai earlier this year displaying large posters about the environmental impacts of such projects.

Kumar says environmentalists are often branded as anti-development, especially when they oppose projects like the bullet train, which, for many Indians, is a source of pride.

"We are not against any development," Kumar says. "Our question is, does it need to happen at the cost of the environment?"

People need to understand that they cannot survive without nature, says Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the Mumbai-based nonprofit Conservation Action Trust . "Just chasing the mirage of GDP growth is not development," he adds.

Authorities say they will plant five mangroves for each one that is cut for the bullet train. But activists say promises about replanting are a sham.

"There is actually no land [within the city] to replant mangroves, no suitable habitat available," says Goenka. On the rare occasion that mangrove restoration does happen, most of the saplings don't survive, Goenka adds.

With these mangroves gone, Mumbai will be left without a vital line of defense when natural disasters strike. And that has happened before.

In 2005, when the city experienced unprecedented monsoon rainfall leading to catastrophic flooding, one of the worst affected areas was a commercial hub in central Mumbai, full of shopping malls and skyscrapers. It's been constructed by reclaiming low-lying areas on the banks of the Mithi River, previously home to a sprawling mangrove forest that acted as a natural stormwater drain.

While floods were ravaging most of Mumbai, Nandakumar Pawar recalls being surprised that his fishing village in a northeastern suburb of Mumbai escaped the worst. A more than 2,000-acre stretch of mangroves nearby acted as a sponge to hold water and didn't allow it to flood his village, he says.

"That was a truly eye-opening incident for me and my community," Pawar says.

In a creek lined with mangroves in Mumbai, boats wait to take tourists to spot flamingos and other migratory birds. Sushmita Pathak/NPR hide caption

In a creek lined with mangroves in Mumbai, boats wait to take tourists to spot flamingos and other migratory birds.

As a fisherman, Pawar already knew mangroves are breeding grounds for fish, which lay their eggs on the roots. He realized mangroves were crucial not just for the fishing community but for everyone.

He started a nongovernmental group called Shree Ekvira Aai Pratishthan (named for a local deity) that has enlisted fishermen to help with mangrove and wetland conservation. When they go out to fish, they act as mangrove vigilantes. If they spot illegal activities, like debris or garbage dumping or illegal encroachment in mangrove areas, they alert the organization, Pawar says.

Authorities appear to be slowly realizing the urgency of mangrove conservation.

In 2012, the government in the state of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, set up a mangrove conservation unit , the first in India. The unit helps regenerate mangroves through a variety of projects, explains former range forest officer Seema Adgaonkar, as she walks through a nursery she helped set up in a northeastern suburb of Mumbai. The gnarled roots of the mangroves rise out of damp, mossy earth and pools of tidal water.

Adgaonkar rattles off the names of mangrove species that used to found in the wild in Mumbai but can only be seen in a protected nursery now. It's part of the city's first mangrove and coastal biodiversity tourism center, which offers regular tours, including flamingo safaris, to heighten awareness.

Seema Adgaonkar, 57, helped set up this mangrove nursery when she worked as a forest ranger with the state mangrove conservation unit. Sushmita Pathak/NPR hide caption

Seema Adgaonkar, 57, helped set up this mangrove nursery when she worked as a forest ranger with the state mangrove conservation unit.

The unit also deploys security officers armed with buckshot guns along the periphery of mangrove forests. The Bombay High Court ruled in 2018 that the destruction of mangroves "offends the fundamental rights of citizens," and several people have been arrested, mostly for encroachment.

But a handful of officers of the mangrove cell are not enough to save all of Mumbai's mangroves, Adgaonkar says. It's important to educate the public — especially children — about the urgency of saving these indispensable trees, she adds.

"If mangroves are saved, Mumbai will be saved," Adgaonkar says. "Otherwise, as sea levels rise, this bustling metropolis will collapse like a house of cards."

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World Environment Day: 10 environmental problems that affect Mumbai

While a host of initiatives are being undertaken to mark World Environment Day in Mumbai, HT takes a look at ten environmental problems that affect the city.

1) Shrinking mangroves Encroachments, aquaculture ponds and infrastructure development are taking a toll on the stretches of mangroves. Mangroves prevent soil erosion and protect shorelines against cyclones and ecological disasters. Environmentalists said around 80 aquaculture ponds have been set up in a range of less than six-kilometers in Navi Mumbai. Also, cases of mangroves destroyed Airoli, Bhandup, Kasheli, Vashi, Vasai, Borivli and areas close to the Gorai creek are reported frequently. “Mangroves are being perforated and damaged by influential locals for creating these ponds,” said Stalin D from NGO Vanashakti.

2) Toxic air Though trial runs to calculate Mumbai’s air quality index (AQI) have begun at the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board’s (MPCB) Bandra station, poor air quality standards are a major problem for city’s inhabitants. “Road construction is the main cause of pollutants, especially in the suburbs. Vehicular emissions and smoke from bakeries and crematoriums are other reasons,” said Rakesh Kumar, chief scientist, The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). Carbon monoxide levels and particulate matter emissions have risen owing to traffic congestion, according to studies by the Mumbai Environmental Social Network. Particulate matter, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen and a host of other pollutants make Mumbai’s air a toxic mix.

3) ‘Dying’ Powai Lake “Around 50% of the surface of Powai Lake is covered with water hyacinths, an invasive weed,” said Elsie Gabriel from NGO Young Environment Programme. The presence of water hyacinths is an indication of low dissolved oxygen levels and high pollution levels. The beautiful lake has been neglected and is dying a slow death, said environmentalists. The lake has also used to dump construction debris and sewage. “About 10 years ago, we arranged a public meeting with residents and government authorities and had come to a conclusion that the lake will be cleaned and beautified. All we got was some landscaping and fountains around the lake,” said Gabriel.

4) Marine creatures dying Dolphins, whales and porpoises have been frequenting Mumbai’s shores, but sadly, all that Mumbaiites can see are carcasses wedged in the middle of rocks and cement tetrapods. While officials from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute have said the reasons could include senescence (old age), disease, fishing gear entanglement or vessel (propeller) hit, researchers have said the numbers could be deteriorating due to an endemic viral infection known as morbillivirus. “Frequent deaths of marine animals are raising serious questions about our conservation efforts. One of the reasons could also be poaching,” said Pawan Sharma from Resinq Association of Wildlife Welfare (RAWW).

5) ‘Beautification’ plan opposed Environmentalists, NGOs and project coordinators will hold a meeting on June 6 to save Maharashtra Nature Park in Mahim. They will question MMRDA’s ‘beautification’ plan for the 37-acre park and discuss the proposal. According to members of Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an independent think-tank, the MMRDA has entrusted the responsibility of a makeover plan, which will be forth to the civic authorities. “Everybody is of the opinion that what is being proposed is not feasible. We will assess the pros and cons of the proposal,” said environmentalist Bibhas Amonkar.

6) Dumping ground fires Residents of eastern suburbs are breathing a concoction of chemicals released in the air due to frequent fires at the Deonar and Mulund dumping grounds. More than five incidents of fires in a span of four months have highlighted the poor solid waste management amenities provided by the civic body. Residents have been forced to leave homes from areas close to the dumping ground due to excessive smoke leading to breathing, skin and eye problems, said doctors. “As per BMC’s agreement, 2,000 tonnes of waste could be dumped at Deonar but nearly 6,000 tonnes is dumped daily,” said environmentalist Raj Kumar Sharma.

7) E-waste ‘poisoning’ Mumbai is the country’s e-waste capital. We generate around 96,000 tonnes of the 12.5 lakh tonnes of e-waste generated in the country annually. As newer models of electrical and electronic gadgets flood the market, safe handling and disposal is proving to be a challenge. A dismal 5% ends up at authorised recycling centres with environmentally sound technologies. Compact fluorescent lamps, cathode ray tubes, mobile phone chargers and CDs directly go into the landfills, contaminating soil and ground water. “E-waste involves complex material with huge amounts of toxicity that can lead to health and environmental problems if it is not managed well,” said Satish Sinha, associate director, Toxic Links.

9) Chocked with plastic Plastic takes thousands of years to degrade and Mumbai produces 800 tonnes of plastic waste per day. Yet we do not have separate bins to dump plastic or plastic waste collection policy. Rag pickers collect PET bottles, milk pouches and plastic bags and sell them to recycling units in Dharavi, Bhandup (West), Vasai and Saki Naka. They make pellets, moulded plastic and yarn out of it. “Mumbaiites have adopted a lifestyle of convenience, whereby they tend to grab plastic products without realising the collateral damage caused to the environment,” said Monisha Narke, founder, environment organisation, Reduce Reuse and Recycle (RUR).

10) A river or a nullah? Stretching across 15kms, the Mithi River meets the Arabian Sea at Mahim creek, starting from Powai and coursing through Kurla, Saki Naka, Kalina and Vakola. The river has been reduced to a nullah, where sewage, garbage and industrial waste is dumped. According to experts, nearly 54% of the original riverbed has been lost to encroachments, roads and development. The Bandra-Worli Sea Link has constricted the mouth of the river with as much as 27 hectares of landfill in Mahim Bay. Social activists have been fighting since 2005 after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay high court on restoring water bodies across the state.

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‘For Mumbai pollution, construction dust, unfavourable meteorology obvious culprits but can't rule out climate change’

IIT Bombay environmental scientist Abhishek Chakraborty on how warming may have caused smog & why bettter planning is needed for policymaking

By Preetha Banerjee

Published: friday 03 november 2023.

The city’s overall air quality index (AQI) was 171, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research data, a few points short of slipping into the ‘poor’ category. This was worse than the AQI of the previous couple of days.

The city’s PM2.5 concentration on Friday was about 17 times the safe value recommended by the World Health Organization, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality information platform.

But this is not the first time Mumbai experienced a period of unhealthy air quality. Mumbai's PM2.5 concentration has more than doubled this year compared to 2019, a new report showed.

This is despite the vast Arabian sea that surrounds the city on three sides, orchestrating a system of moist breezes that can cleanse the onshore air, and the lush green hill stations just a few hours away, where the air quality is significantly better.

So, what has caused the coastal city that so far didn't have to worry about winter pollution, to gasp for breath the past few years?

Like Delhi, Mumbai’s civic authorities have also rolled out a slew of measures to ease the pain for residents. For instance, they aim to fit 350 BEST buses with vehicle-mounted air filters, set up “virtual chimneys at traffic congestion spots, special streetlights and air purification systems in select gardens”, according to a report in the newspaper The Times of India.

But how effective are these? Just as much as a bandage is on a bullet wound, said Abhishek Chakraborty , assistant professor in the environmental engineering department of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay).

Down To Earth spoke to the scientist, who has been working on source apportionment of environmental pollution, real-time air pollution monitoring and control strategies, to understand what has caused the haze in Mumbai and what can be done to improve the air quality.

His immediate prescription: Data gaps in the national emissions and air quality databases need to be fixed and scientific modelling should precede any policy decision to control pollution, so that funds are not wasted. Edited excerpts:

Preetha Banerjee: What is causing the smog in Mumbai?

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One Solution To All The Environmental Problems: How Circular Economy Can Save Mumbai

Mumbai – a city with over 20 million residents – has 55% of its population living in slums

Famous for Bollywood and dubbed as the  ‘City of Dreams’ , the coastal city of Mumbai is the financial capital of India. The city is plagued with many social and environmental issues due to the rapid and unplanned urbanization in and around Mumbai.

The increase in temporary establishments and shanties without basic amenities like water and sewage plan, pollution from the residents and the thriving industries, and complete negligence towards the delicate estuarine and coastal biodiversity hosted by the city, are few of the many problems the city faces.

GROWING URBANIZATION AND POVERTY

• Mumbai is the  most populous city  in India and has one of the fastest rates of urbanization.
• Asia’s largest slum  – Dharavi, which is home to more than a million people – lies right in the middle of the city.
• Almost  60%  of the population live in temporary establishments or shanties and do not have access to a proper sewage system.

A CITY OVERFLOWING WITH WASTE

73% of Mumbai’s garbage is food waste

• If this food waste is properly managed and recycled, the garbage transported to Mumbai’s overburdened landfills will be  reduced by 93% .
• Mumbai generates  7,000-7,500  tonnes  of solid waste every day, which is equivalent to the weight of more than 40 blue whales, the largest animal to exist.
• Around  80 to 110 metric tonnes  of plastic waste, much of it is single-use plastic, is being dumped into Mumbai’s drains and water channels every day.

NOT A DROP TO DRINK

Mithi River – a major river flowing through Mumbai – is more of a sewage line than a river as  100%  of the water flowing through it is sewage dumped by the establishments set around it.

• About  93%  of the pollutants in the river is domestic waste, 7% of the waste comes from over  1500 industries , and more than  3000 illegal establishments  around the river.

1 in 6 glasses of water that a Mumbaikar drinks is contaminated.

• Major lakes in and around Mumbai face similar treatment and are marked as ‘ unsafe ’ for use with Powai lake – one of the origins for the Mithi river – being  8 times more polluted  than the safe limit
• The Arabian sea and the beaches of Mumbai are among the  worst polluted  in the world, due to marine litter, microplastics, and untreated sewage being let out into the sea.

ANNUAL MONSOON MENACE AND WATER-LOGGING

• Between 2005 to 2015, Mumbai has incurred losses worth  ₹140 million  due to flooding.
• All through the year, Mumbai’s canals, creeks and rivers – which are natural storm drain systems –  are clogged  with silt, garbage and untreated sewage. Mithi River being a major storm drain.
• This the root of the water-logging problem the city faces. Before every monsoon, the municipal corporation scrambles to  clean up and desilt  these waterways.

Collectively, around ₹39 billion have been spent on Mithi River restoration.

De-silting and clean-up at Mithi River, Mumbai (scroll.in)

BREATHING IN AIR POLLUTION

• According to WHO, Mumbai was  ranked 4th  on the list of polluted Megacities.
• One of the worst years in recent past was 2018, where the air quality was recorded to be  5 times worse  than the limit prescribed by WHO.
• Due to its coastal location, Mumbai benefits from the sea breeze, which helps to dispel some of the suspended pollutants.

Transport emissions will overtake Industrial emissions to be the  worst polluter  in Mumbai during the next decade

• Mumbai has one of the best public transport networks which is a benefit but Mumbai’s bus service –  Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) buses  – has a history of  not conducting  the mandatory PUC (Pollution Under Control) checks with buses failing the pollution test, further increasing the pollution.

CHANGE WITH CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The Circular Economy model is based on the idea of maintaining the value of the products and resources as much as possible by keeping it in circulation within the system. 

This helps generate revenue and maintain a balance between the 3 Ps of the system,

• People (Society)
• Planet (Environment)
• Profit (Economy)

SOLVING POVERTY WITH WASTE MANAGEMENT

Globally, more than  2 billion tonnes  of solid waste is produced every year — roughly 5 times the total weight of all people on Earth. This number is expected to grow by  70%  in the next 30 years if no measures are taken.

The only way to solve this is by putting this waste back into the system and using it as a resource.

It makes economic sense to properly manage waste SILPA KAZA, WORLD BANK URBAN DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

Proper employment of a Circular Economy in waste management helps build jobs, create new industries, and provide economic stability despite limited natural resources available. For instance,

• Employment in the sectors of collection, segregation, and processing of the plastic and paper waste will increase.
• Training people to repair and refurbish electronic products, appliances, and vehicles has shown an increase in small-scale industries and employment rates as was seen in the  Remanufacturing Model  of circular economy in Ghana.
• Communities could also be trained to upcycle waste fabrics into useful products like bags, decor, toys, and more.

India could create $218 billion in profits by 2030 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 23% by adopting circular principles in the agriculture and vehicle manufacturing industries.

PROJECTS DEVELOPED BY EARTH5R AROUND THIS SOLUTION

Earth5R has been involved and trained slum communities in revenue-generating ideas by upcycling waste.

• Waste segregation and composting

The Earth5R team has trained many housing complexes to segregate their waste and has installed composting bins to turn their organic wastes into manure. This not only minimized the waste ending up in the landfills but the manure was also used for community and urban gardens.

The manure was also distributed to the women living in slums to grow saplings which were later bought for plantation activities.

This way, the waste was utilized in the system while generating revenue.

• Upcycling Fabric Scraps into Dolls

Earth5R team with a designer designed ‘Coffee Dolls’ which are easily made using fabric scraps and coffee grinds sourced from a local coffee shop.

Few women in slums were trained in making these dolls and they soon built a small independent business by selling their dolls to the retailers.

Female Empowerment and Social reform through Circular Economy and Coffee Dolls! (Earth5R)

• Upcycling waste paper into paper bags

Similarly, the people living in slums were also trained in making paper bags out of newspapers. 

These activities help put the waste back into the circulation and makes the slum-dwellers independent by generating good income.

REDUCING AIR POLLUTION WITH TRANSPORTATION

52% of commuters in Mumbai use public transport

Mumbai Suburban Railway is the oldest commuter rail in Asia with the highest passenger density in the world,  7.5 million people  daily. Mumbai also has one of the largest organized bus transport networks in India.

These public transport services in addition to Metro lines and Monorail is a big win for Mumbai as good public transit systems help reduce the emissions and energy consumption.

But this is not enough to curb the city’s air pollution woes.

A large percentage of the population is still dependent on private transport for commuting and this  percentage is increasing .

The falling use and maintenance of public transport, growth in the number of private vehicles, and traffic congestion will all lead to a rise in transport emissions.

Mumbai is already working on solving this problem by,

• Encouraging the use of public transport by reducing the  transit fare
• The authorities also began to adopt zero-emission  electric buses  in the city under BEST and  NMMT  (Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport)

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND WATER HARVESTING 

Being a tropical, coastal city, Mumbai has a potential of switching towards renewable energy sources like Solar, Wind and Tidal energy.

Few steps to inculcate solar energy are already on way with,

• Mumbai Central Railway taking a step towards  Solar power  run railway stations.
• Mumbai Western Railway suburbs installing solar-powered  charging stations .
• Solar panels were installed at the Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command station in Navi Mumbai. This step will cater to nearly  one-third  of the Station’s annual requirement.

But much needs to be done.

Mumbai experiences monsoon with  heavy rains  but the city runs dry by the summer next year. Implementing water harvesting practices will greatly help the city.

Water harvesting initiatives were implemented in Delhi, India. Similar initiatives could be taken in Mumbai for the city to overcome the water shortage issues faced during the dry season (Times Of India)

WATER BODY CLEAN-UP WITH CIRCULAR ECONOMY

A major source of pollution in the water bodies of Mumbai is the solid waste being dumped into them, especially plastic which chokes up the channels, storm drainage, and ecosystem, causing heavy damages.

Powai Lake Clean-up

Earth5R had arranged a  clean-up and waste awareness  project for over 13 weeks at the Powai lake in Mumbai under the A.C.T. (Action. Collaboration. Transformation) Powai project. During this, over 1 ton of plastic was collected and recycled by working with rag-pickers to make plastic benches. This initiative led to the following changes:

• Social:  Helped change community behaviour through awareness and involvement while including them in the formal economy
• Environmental:  Kept the trash out of the environment and the landfill
• Economical:  Generated revenue by circularizing the resources.

Circular economy in practice at the Powai Lake Clean-up(Earth5R)

Mithi River Clean-up

Earth5R is working towards the restoration of the Mithi River in partnership with United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL), VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland), RiverRecycle (Finland), and Huhtamäki (Finland).

The objectives of the Mithi River Clean-up in Mumbai are:

• Creating behavioural changes in the citizens living in the River Catchment Area by providing awareness training and hands-on-workshop on effective solid waste management
• Cleaning the river catchment area to protect the ecosystem and ensure a healthy environment
• Recycling and valorising the collected waste into valuable fuels, chemicals, bio-energy and bio-fertilizer instead of sending it to the landfills.

This one-of-the-kind project will be executed in two stages.

The first stage of the project involves

• Public awareness and systemic change within the people and the businesses
• Drone studies for data collection and analysis of the waste using AI and IoT (Internet of Things) for future circular economy studies and generating a short overview of the potential valorisation routes based on the characterisation of the waste.

The second stage of the project will include:

• Recycling of plastic waste
• Valorisation of the mixed plastic waste, bio-waste and fractions to valuable fuels, chemicals, bioenergy and bio-fertilizer.

The restoration is based on ‘Value Creation’ with Citizen Awareness and engagement of Circular Economy at the core in accordance with technological advancement.

The Value is Created by using a fully automated floating unit that runs 24 x 7.

This is an environmental-friendly unit working on solar energy without any emissions.

The system includes:

• Concentrating and collecting the floating waste present in the river
• Sorting the waste
• Recyclable plastic would be recycled
• The low-value/mixed plastic waste which could not be recycled would be converted into oil but the process of  Pyrolysis .

The unit uses  Zero Emission Pyrolysis Technology  that makes oil with 70% conversion rate and it also runs on its fuel.

This project will help Mumbai

• Reduce the plastic waste entering the oceans through the Mithi River
• Collect the raw material to be processed into valuable products, and
• Engaging the ecosystem of stakeholders in India to transit from linear circular to a more sustainable circular economy

The waste monitoring system hence developed and the data which is collected would help develop similar projects for other cities and many other rivers.

Building a Circular solution for any city can help tackle more than one social, environmental and/or economic issue as it has the potential of being sustainable and effective with Citizen participation and technological advancements. 

Reach out to Earth5R to know more about solving environmental, social and economical issues by creating a circular economy based sustainable projects.

ABOUT EARTH5R

Earth5R is an environmental organization from India with its head office at Mumbai. It works with the NGO sector, Companies and helps them conduct environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs across India. Earth5R specializes in circular economy based projects. Earth5R also offers short term and long term environmental courses.

Earth5R’s Global Sustainability Hub is a cross-sector and cross-country collaboration in pursuit of UN Sustainable Development Goals. It is an excellent opportunity for governments and the private sector to engage with communities, use Sustainability-based models to drive economic changes, and create social and environmental impact.

Reported by Riya Dani, Edited by Mehfil Mubarak

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What challenges have been caused by urban growth in Mumbai?

Managing urban growth – squatter settlements

Chawls are a popular form of housing in Mumbai. These are overcrowded blocks of one small room and were built over 100 years ago. This type of accommodation is no longer built, but the remaining structures are still in demand because they are cheap to rent.

A chawl in Mumbai

Squatter settlements have grown rapidly in Mumbai, spreading onto private land. They are typically poorly constructed and overcrowded.

Dharavi is Mumbai’s and India’s biggest squatter settlement, with a population of approximately 1.2 million people crowded into one square mile. Many of the residents are second generation, living in small dwellings with many extended family members.

Dharavi, Mumbai

Dharavi lies between two railway lines on low-lying land, previously used as a rubbish tip. The settlement is made up of twelve different neighbourhoods, and there are no road signs. The further you enter the settlements, the more permanent and solid the structure become.

Conditions in Dharavi are challenging. People live by open sewers, and children play amongst the sewage waste. There is an average of 4,000 cases of typhoid and diphtheria each day. Access to freshwater is mainly by standpipes turned on at 5:30 am for two hours as water is rationed. There is an average of one toilet per 1,450 people. The average life expectancy is under 60 years old (compared to the national average of 69.27 years in 2020), due to disease and health concerns.

Providing clean water, sanitation systems and energy

Sixty per cent of Mumbai’s population rely on communal taps. In some areas, access to freshwater is limited to standpipes from 5 am for two hours.

Only around sixty per cent of households are connected to Mumbai’s sewerage system, so many open sewers and polluted streams present a health risk. In the unplanned squatter settlements, there is on average, only one toilet per 1000 people. It is only the wealthier suburbs that typically have private water supplies. Factories heavily pollute the Mithi River, and 800 million litres of untreated sewage enter the river every day.

Recycling is common in Mumbai, with over 80% of waste recycled. Over 1000 people are employed in waste disposal. However, many people work in the informal sector, collecting waste from tips to earn money through recycling. An army of 120,000 rag-pickers – unofficial waste collectors – gathers anything reusable they find and takes it to Dharavi (slum settlement) for recycling in small-scale workshops. While the work is effective, it’s incredibly hazardous, with few units adhering to any form of regulation. Workers will sift through piles of festering rubbish with no safety equipment in extreme heat, with many children, aged as young as five, working alongside the adults for as little as £1 a day.

Providing access to services – health and education

Rapid urbanisation has placed considerable pressure on Mumbai’s strained health and education services. Although the Sion hospital has grown, it has not been able to match population growth. Many people have to wait a long time to be treated.

Despite education provision improving, many schools are overcrowded, and there is a shortage of teachers. School drop-out rates are high, with many youngsters unable to continue education as they must work to earn money to help support their families. This is particularly the case in slums and squatter settlements.

Reducing unemployment and crime

Rapid urbanisation is the leading cause of unemployment in Mumbai. Economic growth has not been fast enough to create enough jobs for the available workforce. Underemployment is common (people paid less than they should be for their task, with poor working standards).

In Mumbai, there is a shortage of technicians and skilled engineers. Most people work in the ‘informal sector’, which are low paid, have little job security, and often work in dangerous conditions. These workers do not pay tax on their earnings to the government.

Crime rates are very high in Mumbai. It has the third-highest crime rate of all Indian cities. Nearly one-third of the population have been victims of crime. Corruption is rife, and 22.9% of citizens have been exposed to bribery. Fraud and cybercrime are also widespread.

Managing environmental issues – waste disposal, air and water pollution, traffic congestion

Millions of tonnes of waste enter Mumbai’s Mithi River every year. In 2018 it was the state of Maharashtra’s most polluted river. Faecal coliform content (an indication of human and animal excreta) and biochemical oxygen demand (oxygen levels for aquatic life to survive ) of the Mithi river were above the safe limit. Human and animal excreta was almost 15 times the safe limit! Doctors deal with 4,000 cases of typhoid and diphtheria each day.

Many water pipes run close to sewers, with leakages causing water contamination, leading to the spread of water-borne diseases.

In 2020 Mumbai had the 6th highest level of air pollution in India. Many people in the city are dependent on public transport . Buses and trains are often overcrowded. Traffic congestion is a significant problem in Mumbai, and peak traffic times can last several hours. Air pollution is very high due to the high number of old, inefficient cars and there is also little regulation of emissions from factories.

The urban train and bus networks do not have enough capacity to meet the needs of the city. 3500 people die on Mumbai’s railway each year. Most deaths are caused by passengers crossing tracks, sitting on train roofs and being electrocuted by overhead cables, or hanging from doors and windows.

According to the environmental status report by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2018, Mumbai generates 9,400 metric tonnes of waste per day, of which only 30% gets treated with a proper procedure, the rest gets dumped at the already overloaded landfills and dumping grounds.

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Why Mumbai’s air became worse than Delhi’s – and what can be done

The reason for the sudden spike in the current pollution cycle in mumbai is part of a larger meteorological phenomenon that needs to be studied further.

The past year was unprecedented for India in terms of environmental protection in many ways. India’s pledge to have net-zero emissions by 2070 was one of the most important moves towards its resolve to fight climate change. Anthropogenic emissions are central to environmental issues, whether climate change or air quality. During the peak winter months of November to January in 2022-23, air quality in India’s financial hub, Mumbai, noticeably deteriorated — a taste of what Delhi encounters frequently for Mumbaikars.

Out of the past 92 winter days, Mumbai observed 66 poor and very poor air quality days in 2022-23 as compared to just 28 in the past three years’ average. More so, it had just one day in the permissible limit (NAAQS) this year as against the average of 15 days in the recent past. So good days declined, but foul days have increased by a whopping 135 per cent, leaving residents more choked and breathless than they have been in years. On many days during these months, the air quality in Mumbai sank lower than in Delhi . These findings are from India’s first indigenously-developed forecasting framework, SAFAR, an initiative of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It follows a robust and rigorous scientific methodology that conforms to sitting guidelines established by the World Meteorological Organisation. Mumbai is one of four cities in India that has air quality forecasting and advisory services, while other cities are yet to begin as mandated in NCAP. What caused this unusual development?

Air quality deteriorates mainly due to emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources, and weather manoeuvres. The weather or climate cannot generate emissions. Some cities like Delhi have a disadvantage due to their geographical location, being landlocked. But Mumbai is a coastal city that enjoys a natural cleansing advantage. Stronger surface winds favour faster dispersion and wind reversal cycles of strong sea breezes that sweep away air pollutants from the land. However, there have been indications in recent times that nature can take away the blessing it bestowed. Scientists have discovered that climate change is leading to extreme weather, changes in the ecosystem, and human displacements, but linkages with air quality remain elusive. The reason for the sudden spike in the current pollution cycle in Mumbai is part of a larger meteorological phenomenon that needs to be studied further. My research suggests that the unprecedented triple dip in La Nina, attributed to climate change, has played an unusual role.

This phenomenon has led to the change in wind patterns affecting Mumbai, with frequent calmer wind spells, and delayed cleaner sea wind reversal around the region. This, in turn, affects the natural cleansing mechanism of the city by reducing the dispersal rate of pollutants and trapping the newly generated high-flying dust emissions. The import of transboundary pollution from more polluted regions due to wind pattern changes is also adding to the misery. An increase in all sizes of particles (coarser and finer) has been observed. It is scientifically prudent to conclude that the major share in the current worsening of air quality is from dust emissions. Many redevelopment and construction projects are operational across the city. So, the increase is due to intensifying emissions at the source, which usually consist of PM 2.5 (Particulate Matter) – made up of transport (31 per cent), industries (20 per cent), and resuspended dust (15 per cent), besides other smaller sources.

Before we start to address the problem, we need to recognise it. The debate on relocating ambient air quality monitors in the city to cleaner or more polluted locations is merely a form of avoidance. After all, wherever they are located, a Mumbaikar is breathing foul air. Acting together and strengthening the fight against air pollution should be the order of the day. The situation is not currently urgent, but it is a clear early sign of the impact climate change can have. Hence, we must address the root cause of the problem — anthropogenic emissions — instead of looking for shortcuts.

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The battle against air pollution is long and difficult, but success is achievable beyond doubt. Putting green curtains around construction sites, regularly sprinkling water on truck tyres and debris before loading and unloading material, and ensuring smooth traffic flow to overcome snarls are some of the immediate remedies. In the medium term, transitioning to electric vehicles, addressing solid waste management, dumping grounds, and industrial toxin management are some actions that will help us achieve better air quality.

The writer is Chair Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore and Founder Project Director, SAFAR

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Rising Tides: Diving Into Mumbai’s Flooding Challenges

By Isha Kulkarni , originally published by Degrees of Change

August 7, 2020

Even the smallest degree of climate change will bring about rising sea levels, varying storm patterns, and an increase in extreme weather events. With densely populated cities across the world located on coastlines and in flood zones, managing surface water is vital to the livelihoods of millions. In India, the effects of extreme flooding are already all too familiar.

This year, flooding in the state of Assam has killed hundreds and displaced almost 3 million people. Neighbouring country Nepal has similarly been hit, with several people killed and missing. The economic impact, yet to be estimated, is expected to be in millions of rupees. Everything from primitive flood warning systems to lack of political will is being seen as the cause.

This mirrors the story of the Mumbai floods of 26 July 2005, when the city infamously stood at a standstill. The floods resulted in the death of over 1,000 people and resulted in damages worth $1.7 billion USD , with major city services shut for almost five days. In the wake of this ‘once-in-a-hundred-year’ event, experts weighed in on potential solutions. Many believed Mumbai’s infrastructure and disaster management governance needed radical change. However, the story continues to repeat every year.

Mumbai: the Perfect Storm

Today, on the 15th anniversary of the floods, little is different. In fact, in 2019, the chief of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) believed climate change was the culprit. This is not untrue: presently, 4.8 million Indians are affected by flooding yearly, but this number could be 19 million by 2030. The World Resources Institute also suggested that climate change is the most significant driver of urban flooding, putting Mumbai acutely at risk. An OECD study ranked Mumbai as first among coastal cities with the largest populations exposed to climate impacts by the 2070s. The McKinsey Global Institute estimated $920 billion of damage in Mumbai due to climate-exacerbated sea level rise and flooding.

The city is the perfect storm of climate change, pre-existing planning problems and inefficient infrastructure.

Seven Islands that are One

Originally made up of seven discrete islands, the shape of Mumbai today has been defined by land reclamation over hundreds of years. The shape of the city has been changing continuously, until as late as the 1990s.

When it rains, water running off the surface is collected by rivers or other conveyance channels, and seeps into the ground. Ultimately, the water is taken up by plants, recharges the natural groundwater capacity, or flows back to the sea.

In the case of Mumbai, much of the rainwater drains into the lowest lying areas — the parts historically reclaimed from the sea. With every inch of the city inhabited and built up, concrete is ubiquitous, making it hard for any of the rain to seep into the ground. Finally, the only water body the rain can drain into is the Mithi River. Years of risky development has rendered the river — the lifeline of Mumbai — less than suitable for the task.

Reduced Natural Drainage Capacity

The Mithi is the confluence of the Powai and Vihar lakes at the north of the city. Its mouth was once hundreds of meters wide, but over the decades, this has been reduced to barely 40 meters . There has been encroachment over its actual course, too. Most prominently, the Bandra-Kurla Complex and Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport reclaimed land on the Mithi.

Lack of waste management regulation has simultaneously led to illegal pollution of the river, all in all reducing its capability of resisting flood surges.

Due to a heavy focus on infrastructure development and urban growth, Mumbai’s natural drainage paths have been concretised and built over. To contrast, Rotterdam is one of the safest delta cities in the world precisely because it has learned to live with, rather than above, water.

The city’s ecosystem-based development solutions attempt to mimic natural drainage pathways. Working together with regularly upgraded sewerage infrastructure, Rotterdam’s unique ecology has been a gift to its residents in times of heavy rainfall.

Such sustainable drainage strategies have immense potential to enhance urban resilience, but in Mumbai’s case, they have been routinely ignored. Millions are thrown every year at the Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System (BRIMSTOWAD) project to overhaul the sewerage system by installing new pumping stations and repairing old pipelines. However, investment in nature-based solutions is neglected.

Climate as a Risk Multiplier

Climate change will not present a new question to Mumbai’s flooding conundrum — it will simply multiply risks the city already faces. Natural climate solutions such as mangroves and wetlands can alleviate these risks by acting as sponges, but continue to be destroyed due to lack of appropriate flood zoning.

Mumbai has a total of 5,300 acres of salt-pans , entirely marked as wetlands. Along with mangroves, salt pans hold seawater outside the city and prevent urban flooding. However, the 2017 Wetlands rules decided that salt-pan lands were no longer marked as wetlands, opening them up for development. Changes to Mumbai’s Development Plan (DP) 2034 further indicate that the government is working towards building an ambitious low-cost housing project on these salt pans.

In 2005, the Concerned Citizens’ Commission on the Mumbai Floods clearly highlighted these and other critical concerns. They suggested a combination of urgent mitigative and adaptive measures to city leadership. Nevertheless, the prevailing belief was that improved sewerage infrastructure would be a magic bullet to vanquish the flooding monster, and millions were poured into the proposed Brihanmumbai Stormwater Disposal System (BRIMSTOWAD).

Such a strategy ironically prioritises purely infrastructure-centric solutions for problems that originally arose due to the rampant development of infrastructure. Local political misdirection is certainly responsible. However, the proclivity to believe that environmental issues can be addressed through technology alone is rather universal, experienced in every sector and every country. An interdisciplinary approach is perhaps the only way to understand that to truly move forward, we must acknowledge the different roads that have brought us to this precipice.

The Way Forward

Building Climate Resilience

The concerns highlighted above only scratch the surface of the larger Mumbai flooding puzzle — one that can never be solved through a narrow technical viewpoint. Considering the city’s vulnerability to climate change compounded by its unique geography, infrastructural challenges and governance landscape, a robust action plan must include perspectives from diverse fields.

Investing in Natural and Built Infrastructure

Natural climate solutions such as mangroves, salt pans, green roofs and urban wetlands play an important role in helping Mumbai reclaim its ecological alignment. Integrating sustainable urban drainage mechanisms such as permeable paving and biological retention in new construction needs to be a priority. China’s ‘ Sponge Cities ’ initiative is an exemplar of the same.

The BRIMSTOWAD project planned to overhaul Mumbai’s drainage by installing new pumping stations and repairing pipelines. Fifteen years on, not even 50 percent of the work planned has been completed. Fast-tracking of this project will need to be combined with systematically clearing the Mithi river (a process known as desilting ).

Improving Governance and Regulation

There is a clear need to improve environmental governance in India, an action that can catalyse enhanced climate resilience as well as greater infrastructure investment. Regulatory framework design and implementation simultaneously needs to be improved. Adjusting zoning laws will cut construction in at-risk coastal areas and flood plains. This will reduce the number of people impacted while concurrently preventing rainwater from flooding into urbanised areas. Better waste management legislation is likewise essential, and presents Mumbai with far-reaching co-benefits.

Strengthening Disaster Preparedness

Flooding is endemic to Mumbai due to its topography and ecology, meaning that we may not be able to cure the problem entirely. We can, however, ensure that if we continue to be affected, the worst of the disaster can be averted.

Mumbai’s current disaster management systems urgently need to be upgraded. This should be done by rigorously integrating advanced technology. Robust early warning systems that alert citizens of day-to-day weather projections and predictions can help save lives and prevent catastrophe. Food and drinking water, first aid and resilient electricity supply must be provisioned. Scientific collaborations and community leadership can play a key role here.

Building Partnerships and Learning Exchanges

With every single one of Mumbai’s residents and businesses facing a growing threat, the opportunity to leverage multi-stakeholder partnerships will prove critical.

Just the July 2005 floods incurred losses of $140 million to trade, and $227.5 million to industrial infrastructure. The risk due to climate change is being increasingly priced into business decisions and Mumbai’s vulnerability is sure to be a recurring conversation in the private sector. This conversation must collectively advocate for innovative models to finance mitigation, resilience and disaster preparedness.

It is important to note that Mumbai is not the only city to face the burden of urban flooding. Sharing learnings between vulnerable cities can ensure the implementation of best practices from around the world. Taking the knowledge from Mumbai’s fight against flooding into other sectors also presents a significant opportunity. By understanding successes and failings gathered over the years, we will be able to co-create a proactive, interdisciplinary approach for tackling climate impacts worldwide.

The author would also like to thank Anna Tyler, Guest Writer at Degrees of Change, for her technical review of this article.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own. They may reflect Degrees of Change’s editorial stance, but not those of any affiliated organisations.

Teaser photo credit: Mangrove swamps in Kannur, Indian By see other version – transferred from english wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1867805

Isha Kulkarni

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Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment of Mumbai city, India

• Original Paper
• Published: 27 August 2019
• Volume 102 , pages 575–589, ( 2020 )

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• R. Mani Murali 1 ,
• M. J. Riyas 1 ,
• K. N. Reshma 1 &
• S. Santhosh Kumar 1  

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Climate change (CC) is one of the most challenging problems of today which need to be understood. CC impact studies at the urban centres are the need of the hour. Mumbai is one of the most vulnerable port cities in the world and one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The city is vulnerable to CC-induced hazards, including sea-level rise, storm surge, flooding, and coastal erosion. In this study, it is tried to do the spatial integration of vulnerability from these hazards to portray the overall CC-induced impacts in Mumbai city. This study portraits the overall vulnerability of the Mumbai megacity, considering SLR, long-term coastal erosion, and flooding. This integrated vulnerability assessment reveals that 123.35 km 2 (24%) of the Mumbai regions is demarcated as composite vulnerable regions. They are mostly around the coastal tracts. Within the vulnerable regions, inland flood-affected areas from the past floods area are 37.13 km 2 , which is around 30% of the demarcated most vulnerable regions. Remaining vulnerable areas are falling in built up, barren, forest, vegetation, and mangrove regions. The most worrying impact would be in the 44 km 2 of the built-up areas, which is around 35% of the vulnerable regions. It pulls the city to one of the most vulnerable cities of the world due to the exposure of the higher population. Rest of all the classes can cope up as they are naturally covered, not covered, and the human population is not residing over those regions currently. Since the city is expanding rapidly, other LULC classes apart from built-up land have to be converted based on the need. Available barren land can be kept for rehabilitation in the future. This study provides vital information about the CC-induced vulnerability of Mumbai city.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU), Government of Maharashtra for funding this study and the Director of CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography for permitting to carry out this study. Google Earth images and Landsat satellite images ( www.earthexplorer.usgs.gov ) were used in this study. Authors thank Mr. Ravinder Dhiman for participating in the field trip. All the reviewers are greatly acknowledged for their insightful comments and suggestions. The NIO contribution No is 6411.

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Murali, R.M., Riyas, M.J., Reshma, K.N. et al. Climate change impact and vulnerability assessment of Mumbai city, India. Nat Hazards 102 , 575–589 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03766-2

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Environment and its Sustainability in India A Journey through Recent Times

Senjuti Saha , senjuti saha

To understand the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world we need to examine their linkage through philosophical, religious, literary, and political conceptualizations; and in the digital world it is not a difficult task. In the past several decades environmental conservationists and geoscientists started recognizing the importance of a sustainable world and studying the moral and ethical relationship between humans and the environment. Their main objective is to preserve the nonhuman world. Humans have altered nearly every natural disturbance regime on the planet through climate and landuse change, and in many instances, these processes may have interacting effects. The ‘anthropocene’ contributes the most adverse impact on biodiversity forms and the mankind itself is at the threshold of the Earth's sixth major extinction. A 2010 study found that marine phytoplankton contributing almost 50% of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass has declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century. Human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction. For sustenance of our planet we all need to be more environmentally aware and the study of environmental awareness has become very relevant. Environmental degradation is so detrimental that it costs long-term health and security of animals, plants and humans. Increased economic growth adversely affecting the environment; with increase in consumption of non-renewable resources and emission of pollutants that ultimately results into potential loss of habitat for many species. When we think of the environment, do we think about issues such as global warming or global sea levels rising? Do we consider the relationship between human beings and the world, from air pollution to the depletion of natural resources? If we do we can transform the economic gain into environmental gain with devoting resources to protect the environment from degradation and mitigate the harmful effects of pollution through fruitful innovation. Now it’s the time to recognize the growing importance of study of environmental ethics. understanding its importance can benefit both humans and the environment. Environmental ethics examine the ethical relationship of humans and the environment. It’s all about caring our surroundings. If people realise how important our mother Earth is for our well being then only they will learn to care and bother about environmental ethics. We have tried to evoke the spirit of wellness of our surroundings. Environment includes both biotic and abiotic components. This book is a compilation of scholarly articles covering various aspects of nature and human practices. It enumerates with illustration the importance of ethics in maintaining social sanity. It exemplifies how encroaching urbanization affects the vegetation of New Delhi, the perception of the coal worker of Raniganj towards environment, how the tribal societies in north Bengal are getting transformed with time, how forest and garden based economies are interactive with local habitat. Moreover we come to know the vulnerability, landuse changes and changes in the community perception of ecosystem services through temporal studies. Study also encompasses the status of elderlies in present society which indeed very relevant; nothing is beyond environment and anything can influence The Environment.

QUEST JOURNALS

Piles of junk across the streets.Trees are all gone because of human greed.Rivers of life are now rivers of death.Will my children play on the fields of green.Seeing all these can we sit still? This paper reviews the major environmental challenges of India according to the author.First and foremost is India's ground water crisis. Water, water everywhere water but not a single drop to drink. According to Central Ground Water Board report the situation is more grim in Central and South India where storage is difficult due to hard rock terrain and inefficient rainfall. Secondly food insecurity. Wheat is the main cereal crop in India. Wheat grows well in cool temperatures. But rising global temperatures will stress wheat crops and lower their their yields,This explains why, according to a December 2014 study that was published in Nature Climate Change , every 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures means a 6% fall in wheat production. Thirdly waste disposal is a serious problem in India. Overconsumptions of resources and tons of plastics are creating a major problem in India. Plastic, fast food, packaging and cheap electronic wastes are posing serious threats. Fourthly destruction of coral reefs. Rampant destruction of the reefs is likely to cause hunger, poverty and political instability in India as the livelihoods of millions of Indians is fishing and majority of Indians eat fish. Fifth is the threat from genetically modified crops. Genetically modified crops can cause serious environmental problems. India is consuming banned GM food owing to lack of regulations.6.Outsourcing is a major problem. Many foreign based factories are based in India.7.Encroachments on wetlands is a serious concern in India.8.Global warming-India is experiencing extreme weather events like the floods of Kerala and drought in Maharastra as a result of the global climatic changes. El Nino has been responsible for increase in cholera and diarrheal diseases. Pathogens have developed stress tolerance best example of which is the increase in the incidence of dengue fever. Last but not the least disruption in the natural process like pollination is crucial for the survival of the ecosystem. Decrease in migratory birds is a global indicator of all is not well. We are paying a heavy price for our rituals. By throwing idols in the river and untreated effluents we have converted rivers of life into rivers of death.

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Mainstreaming Climate Change in Navi Mumbai’s Development Plan

Navi Mumbai, the satellite city planned and built nearly 50 years ago to decongest Mumbai, has chalked out its draft Development Plan 2018-2038. The plan, however, fails to address ecological issues, especially the imminent hazards brought on by Climate Change. If natural areas in the city are not protected but earmarked for development-construction, it will not only impact the ecological balance and sustainability in the city but also undermine the Right to Environment of millions who live here. This essay, based on the official report and climate mapping, outlines the ecological challenges that Navi Mumbai faces and suggests ways in which the DP should strategise action so that ecological integrity and people’s rights are protected.

Navi Mumbai, across the harbour from Mumbai, is a coastal city carrying all possible Climate Change risks of an expanding and dense metropolis. This makes it imperative that the city becomes climate-informed and develops strategies to deal with the impact. Imagined in the 1960s, Navi Mumbai was developed to decongest Mumbai and develop an infrastructurally-sound satellite city. Much like Mumbai, Navi Mumbai too was developed through largescale land conversion and terrain re-engineering of large parcels of wetlands, mudflats, and salt pans. Environmental conflict was thus written into the city’s development, damaging its ecology and undermining people’s Right to Environment.

Initially steered by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the city began to be governed by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) in 1991. It has grown to house a population of more than 1.8 million which is expected to exceed 2.8 million by 2038, according to the Navi Mumbai draft Development Plan (DP) 2018-2038. The DP offers the best opportunity to recognise the Climate Change challenges that the city faces and strategise action. However, it barely recognises the projected climate impacts. 

Any review of the DP or acknowledgment of people’s Right to Environment has to identify the Climate Change hazards the city faces: Flooding, landslides, cyclones, increasing heat waves, and poor Air Quality Index (AQI). 

Navi Mumbai was conceptualised with a unique drainage system where stormwater and wastewater disposal systems are separate. Despite this, several flooding hotspots dot the city – specifically Vashi’s Sector 9, Mahape MIDC, the Agricultural Produce Market Committee area, MAFCO market, Talavali village and Balaram Wadi at Ghansoli, Turbhe and Rabale MIDC. In the climate hazard mapping last year by Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), several other locations were also seen to be vulnerable to flooding – Airoli Sector 9, Ghansoli Sectors 8A & 5, Talavali Gaothan area, Vashi Sector 19A, Sanpada Sectors 8, 18 and 19, Seawoods Sectors 30 and 25, and Belapur Sectors 4 and 5.

With the increase in population, the demand for natural resources, infrastructure, housing has intensified and the need to deal with Climate Change impact has become urgent. Climate events which occurred once every 100 years have become more frequent. For instance, cyclones which were rare, have hit the city several times recently. Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021 led to life losses in Airoli-Sanpada areas and affected the fisherfolk living in Sarsole and Diwale Koliwadas. 

The eastern edge of Navi Mumbai, bordered by Parsik hills – a reserved forest area – sees frequent landslides due to a loss in its vegetative cover, deforestation, and exposed quarries. The NMMC’s City Disaster Management Report, 2015, identified eight landslide prone locations which are primarily urban poor settlements – Durgamata slum in Belapur; Mahatma Gandhi slum and Ramesh Metal quarry in Nerul; Indiranagar slum in Turbhe; Rabale-Bhimnagar, Ashwin quarry, and Ambedkar Nagar in Ghansoli; and Ilthanpada in Digha. 

Navi Mumbai also faces heat waves and forest fires. Summers are hazardous as they are coupled with heat waves exacerbating the urban heat island effect in an increasingly concretised city. Findings from a Land Surface Temperature (LST) analysis in 2021-22, conducted by YUVA under the Climate Justice Project, shows that Vashi and Airoli areas recorded 44.8 degrees Celsius in March this year while the highest LST that month in Mumbai was 46.4 degrees Celsius in Mankhurd. Besides, parts of Navi Mumbai experienced severe temperatures too. This adversely impacts social and environmental indicators. In April this year, the city saw 10 per cent rise in schoolchildren affected by dehydration, vomiting and diarrhoea. Heat-induced forest fires have become a regular phenomenon; the exposed quarries have exacerbated this largely in Belapur-Nerul section and Mahape area of Parsik hill.   

Navi Mumbai deals with poor Air Quality Index too; land-use planning is responsible for this. In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) Regional Plan of the 1960s, before Navi Mumbai was planned, large parcels of land along Parsik hills were earmarked as industrial zones, a similar zone was also planned in Taloja which is adjacent to Navi Mumbai, and nearby areas were marked for housing. The highly polluting industries in the industrial zones have caused massive health impacts and environmental disruption over the years. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board data in 2019, based on information from hospitals in the area, showed a rise in patients with air-borne diseases. On November 14, 2022, the air quality monitoring station in Mahape recorded 260 AQI – as poor as Delhi’s AQI which is deemed very unhealthy (AirVisual, 2022). 

Climate-informed Development Plan necessary It was imperative that the Development Plan 2038 (DP) addressed these and related Climate Change risks, and evolved mitigation and adaptation measures with holistic strategies. The multiple and multi-scalar impacts had to be addressed at both macro and micro scale. The DP would have then set the city on the path of climate mitigation and adaptation, and protected people’s Right to Environment.

Over the past few decades, the NMMC has committed to environmental sustainability, climate action and disaster responsiveness through three city-level action plans; however, none of these find a mention in the DP. It’s a classic case of one hand not knowing what the other has done.

Firstly, there was the Government of India’s Climate Risk Management programme (2015) to integrate risk reduction measures in development plans and undertake mitigation activities; flowing from that, the city’s disaster management plans and the Hazard Risk and Vulnerability Analysis should have been in the DP. Secondly, the NMMC’s Disaster Management Plan of 2015 highlighted Climate risks which made slums highly vulnerable to flooding, fire, and cyclones, and recommended measures for rehabilitation of people living in them. However, the DP does not identify a single slum this way, let alone suggest or develop protocols for safe rehabilitation. 

Thirdly, according to the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), Navi Mumbai comes under the purview of non-attainment cities – cities that have fallen short of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for over five years. The NMMC has to implement actions for efficient mobility and connectivity, improving public transport and last mile connectivity, and so on. Though these are directly linked to urban planning and must reflect in the DP, they find no mention. 

The DP is an opportunity to create a comprehensive and dynamic city plan, reflecting the present land use but also accounting for changes in the future. Given the Climate Change hazards on the horizon, Climate-informed development planning was necessary. It is disappointing that the Navi Mumbai DP fails to reference and include mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce risk and build climate resilience. 

DP ignores Climate Change The draft DP not only has contradictions but also fails to recognise – and address – the immediate and long-term impact of Climate Change. It should have sought to conserve the existing ecologically sensitive regions to prevent greater climatic disasters in the future. For a coastal city, the coastal areas are natural buffers from the sea, and open spaces act as natural sponges to maintain ecological equilibrium neither find a mention in the DP.

Instead of clearly demarcating and conserving existing eco-sensitive areas, the Proposed Land Use (PLU) in the DP shows several lapses. For instance, an estimated 4.22 square kilometres of forest cover has been reduced (from 26.55 square kilometres to 22.33 square kilometres), multiple land parcels allocated for playgrounds and recreational grounds have been demarcated on forests, hill slopes and wetlands with mangroves which will only lead to tree felling or conversion of these lands permanently damaging the ecosystem. 

The DP fails to employ the basic Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) guidelines in marking various CRZ areas. These ecologically sensitive areas could have been delineated by incorporating one or all the documents available such as the Wetland Atlas of Maharashtra, the Forest Survey of India maps, and Coastal Zone Management Plan maps which safeguard the wetlands. Ideally, the DP should clearly mark the existing flood lines, low-lying areas, high tide and low tide lines, and so on to ensure that the land use reservations do not contradict or undermine these areas.

The proposed land use (PLU) in the plan shows a fair number of green spaces but their ownership, usage and accessibility are masked with a single shade of green. The shortfall on land allocation for public utility allows for few recreational spaces, open spaces and sporting facilities in the public domain; those that exist are private clubs. Open spaces allow for the percolation of rainwater which helps to prevent flooding and to recharge the natural aquifers, but these are not reflected in the development guidelines for open spaces. Moreover, the inclusion of parking lots (Belapur Sector 13) and swimming pools (DY Patil Sports Stadium in Sector 7, Nerul) create an illusion of open space. 

Then, the DP dilutes reservations on public space which helps to green-wash it. The PLU maps show parks, gardens, recreational grounds, stadium, tree-belts, open spaces all under a single category of PG/RG (playgrounds/recreational grounds). This makes the mapping ambiguous and is likely to lead to misinterpretation or conflicts as these areas have different legal designations or protection. For instance, the DY Patil Sports Stadium is a private facility, inaccessible to and unaffordable by the public. Similarly, playgrounds of private schools, shown here, are highly monitored inaccessible spaces. 

Additionally, the factories in Rabale and Taloja pollute air and water with serious consequences on the health of residents. They also dump waste and effluents in Panvel and Thane creeks causing direct harm to the ecology leading to degrading mangroves and fish population which, in turn, impact the already vulnerable fisherfolk. Some of these areas may be located beyond the NMMC but they impact lives in Navi Mumbai. Such climate and environmental impacts transgress boundaries making it necessary that the DP addressed both city and regional planning. 

Whither flamingo city? The NMMC has made grand efforts to model Navi Mumbai as the Flamingo City as large flocks of the migratory birds nestle here every winter. The DP takes no note of this entire ecosystem and, in fact, proposes an 18-metre-wide and 35-kilometre-long coastal road from CBD-Belapur to Thane along the coastal stretch of the city. 

This road will wipe out the entire ecosystem including large dense swathes of mangroves, wetlands, mudflats, and grasslands as well as open the area for further construction and ‘development’. Instead, the DP should plan buffer zones around such ecologically rich and sensitive stretches to conserve, protect and promote the migratory birds and other fauna. Despite receiving international recognition under the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands, proposed projects such as the coastal road disregard the importance of these wetlands. From Mumbai’s coastal road experience, it is known that such projects can cause massive ecological disruptions and are inherently “maladaptive” to climate risks. 

People’s Right to Environment includes space too. When CIDCO developed housing in the then nascent Navi Mumbai, it went in for low-rise building with proportionate open spaces incorporating the neighbourhood concept. This housing stock is on the verge of being redeveloped. The newly introduced Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR) permit high Floor Space Index (high-rise) redevelopment which would mean high population density on a small land parcel, causing pressure on the existing infrastructure as well as on natural resources. 

The way forward: Climate just city planning In the DP, land use under the category of environment only includes four sub-categories: PG/RG, water bodies and creeks, mangroves, and forest. This is a simplification of complex environment into broad categories which glazes over their role in maintaining ecological balance. Equally, such categorisation of land parcels makes it easier to convert them piece-by-piece into urban plots for ‘development’. 

A way out would be to carry out a comprehensive value assessment and clear sub-categorisation of ecologically sensitive areas. For instance, the value of vacant lands in ecological terms is higher than its land price alone; they should be sub-categorised as grasslands whose dependent flora and fauna need to be conserved. Natural assets like mangroves, wetlands, salt-pans, creeks, water bodies, forests, beaches, rivers, hillocks must be clearly demarcated as “protected spaces” in the ELU and the DP. 

Navi Mumbai needs to have a hierarchy of open spaces with each having a different degree of accessibility. The ELU should analyse open space requirements at different hierarchies – local, ward, and city levels – and maintain their integrity while making land reservations. This will enhance people’s accessibility to open spaces and directly touch on their Right to Environment.

It is, by now, well accepted that Climate Change impact on health and livelihoods affect urban poor disproportionately and unequally. However, they have been erased from the city’s planning process. The Navi Mumbai’s DP does not identify a single urban poor settlement. Many of them are precariously located in low-lying areas, along nallahs and hill slopes, which are frequently affected by floods and landslides. During a climate hazard, the lack or low availability of health, transport, and water infrastructure in these areas make residents more vulnerable. 

The urban poor living in such settlements also lack access to climate risk reduction information, and are less prepared for adaptation. Any climate adaptation programme should be linked with social security and equality. In the context of DP, the PLU maps should integrate disaster planning along with provision of social amenities in slums. The steps that the NMMC has taken so far to combat Climate Change impacts must be holistically addressed for the future. 

The DP is as an opportunity to link climate adaptation with land use planning; it should not be a lost opportunity and must further integrate into regional and state plans. The DP sets out a land-use plan for the next two decades. It cannot be unmindful of Climate risks that Navi Mumbai faces; it must mainstream climate action. This calls for integrating environment with other sectors such as planning, policy-making, budgeting, and implementation. Climate Change impacts are layered and multi sectoral; they cannot be ignored in the process of city planning. Mainstreaming Climate Change into city plans would go a long way to ensure that people’s Right to Environment is protected and actualised. 

Dulari Parmar , a Project Associate at Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), has experience in community-led mapping. Her work focuses on climate justice in coastal cities. She extends her gratitude to Marina Joseph and Manasi Pinto from YUVA, for helping shape this essay with their critical inputs. 

Cover photo: Kartik Mistry/ Creative Commons

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UIC - Mumbai - SEE Challenges

Key words Inequalities - Differences between poverty and wealth, as well as in peoples' wellbeing and access to things like jobs, housing and education. Inequalities may occur in housing provision, access to services, access to open land, safety and security. Pollution - The presence of chemicals, noise, dirt or other substances which have harmful or poisonous effects on an environment. Sanitation - Measures designed to protect public health, including the provision of clean water and the disposal of sewage and waste. Traffic congestion - Occurs when there is too great a volume of traffic for roads to cope with, so traffic jams form and traffic slows to a crawl.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES Mumbai is a city that faces many challenges and those challenges are large because of its immense size and rapid growth.  Physical Geography also plays a role, as Mumbai has been limited in where it can grow because it originally grew at the southern end of an island surrounded by the Arabian Sea and 2 rivers. The major problem in Mumbai is the growth of squatter settlements known in India as SLUMS. These slums come with many issues for people including the lack of planned access to clean water and sanitation systems, poor health, lack of education, unemployment and the prospect of crime. One of the world’s most infamous slums is Dharavi slum, which is the largest squatter settlement located in Mumbai (formally Bombay) in India. There are a million people crammed into one square mile in Dharavi. At the edge of Dharavi the newest arrivals come to make their homes on waste land next to water pipes in slum areas. They set up home illegally amongst waste on land that is not suitable for habitation. In the wet monsoon season these people have huge problems living on this low lying marginal land.

Challenging Conditions in the slums In the slum people have to live with many problems; 1. Lack of sanitation is the MAJOR ISSUE - people have to go to the toilet in the street and there are open sewers because 500 people share one public latrine. Children play amongst sewage waste and doctors deal with 4,000 cases a day of diphtheria and typhoid.

Dharavi Slum By Leonora Enking via Wikimedia Commons

2. Lack of access to clean water – there are few water pipes in the slum and those that exist only have the supply switched on for 2 hours a day by the city authorities.  This means people have to queue for water and have LIMITED SUPPLY.  In addition, next to the open sewers are water pipes, which can crack and take in sewage.  Dharavi slum is based around this water pipe built on an old rubbish tip.

3. Lack of legal rights - The people have not planned this settlement and have no legal rights to the land.  In addition, the slum houses have little in the way of security.  Mumbai as a whole has a problem with crime, such as pick pockets and organised begging. 4. POOR HEALTH – life expectancies in the squatter settlements are low because of these conditions, poor quality water, mosquitoes which thrive in nearby mangrove swamps and dangerous jobs (There are toxic wastes in the slum including hugely dangerous heavy metals) all serve to impact on people’s health. 5. UNEMPLOYMENT and POOR QUALITY WORK - Many people have poor jobs, such as those who work to sift the rubbish in the tips where children and women sift through the rubbish for valuable waste. They have to work under the hot sun in appalling conditions. They earn around a £1 a day for their work. Many architects and planners claim this slum could hold the solution for many of the problems of the world’s largest cities.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES: Mumbai has challenges to deal with protecting the natural environment and providing people with a clean environment to live in.  1. Water pollution is a major problem in Mumba i.  A major study revealed that 77% of households suffer from poor water quality in the city.  This poor water quality is leading to water borne diseases occurring in people and levels of things like total dissolved solids (TDS) and nitrates are higher than safe limits.  Toxic chemicals such as arsenic and lead and disease-causing bacteria are also contributing to the alarming increase in the water contamination. Deadly waterborne diseases like cholera, jaundice, typhoid, diarrhoea are affecting people as a result.

2. Air pollution – Mumbai has some very dirty air including dangerous levels of Nitrous Oxides and small dust particles called particulate matter.  These are both hazardous to human health and can cause things like asthma. The causes of this pollution are industry, ever increasing numbers of cars and construction dust.

3. Waste – Mumbai produces 7,500 metric tonnes of waste every day, a huge amount.  There is no comprehensive city based system of collection and this waste poses a hazard to human health.  The slum of Dharavi has a recycling zone. It is claimed that Dharavi’s recycling zone could be the way forward to a sustainable future. Everything is recycled from cosmetics and plastics to computer keyboards. 23% of plastic waste gets recycled in the UK, in Dharavi it is 80%. Despite this Mumbai still has major problems getting rid of its waste.

4. Traffic congestion – there are more than 22 million vehicles registered in Mumbai and these contribute to both noise and air pollution, as well as lots of lost hours as people sit in traffic jams.  This is despite Mumbai’s renowned train system.

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Environmental Degradation in Mumbai Essay Example

• Pages: 12 (3225 words)
• Published: August 14, 2018
• Type: Article

Mumbai formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The city proper is the most populous city in the world, with approximately 14 million inhabitants. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms the world's 4th largest urban agglomeration, with around 19 million people. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour.

Mumbai's port handles about 60% of India's maritime cargo. As of 2008, Mumbai has been ranked as an Alpha world city. HISTORY Mumbai is built on what was once an archipelago of seven islands: Bombay Island, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Colaba, Worli, and Old Woman's Island (also known as Little Colaba). Pleistocene sediments found near Kandivali in northern Mumbai by British archaeologist Todd in 1939 suggest that these islands were inhabited since t

he Stone Age. Their earliest known inhabitants were the Kolis, a fishing community.

In the third century BCE, the islands formed part of the Maurya Empire, ruled by the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka of Magadha. Buddhist monks, scholars, and artists created the artwork, inscriptions, and sculpture of the Kanheri Caves in the mid third century BCE and Mahakali Caves. GEOGRAPHY Mumbai is located at 18°58? 30? N 72°49? 33? E? / ? 18. 9750°N 72. 8258°E? / 18. 9750; 72. 8258 in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai consists of two distinct regions: Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban District, which form two separate districts of Maharashtra. The city region is also commonly referred to as the Island City.

Mumbai, as an urban entity, spans a total area of 603 km2 (233 sq mi), while Greater Mumbai, the area under the administration o

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), spans a total area of 437. 71 km2 (169 sq mi), with the Island City spanning 67. 79 km2 (26 sq mi) and the suburban district spanning 370 km2 (143 sq mi). CLIMATE Lying in a tropical zone and near the Arabian Sea, Mumbai experiences two clear seasons, a humid season and a dry season. The humid season, between March and October, is characterized by high humidity and temperatures of over 30 °C (86 °F).

Between June and September, the monsoon rains lash the city, supplying most of the city's annual rainfall of 1,800 millimeters (70. 9 in), with an average of 600 millimeters (23. 6 in) falling in July alone. The maximum annual rainfall ever recorded was 3,452 millimeters (135. 9 in) in 1954. The highest rainfall recorded in a single day was 944 millimeters (37. 17 in) on 26 July 2005. The dry season, between November and February, is characterized by moderate levels of humidity and warm to cool weather. Cold northerly winds are responsible for a mild chill during January and February.

January is the coolest month of the year with mean daily minimum being 16. 4 °C (61. 5 °F). CULTURE Mumbai's culture is a blend of traditional festivals, food, music, and theatres. The city offers a lifestyle that is rich, cosmopolitan and diverse, with a variety of food, entertainment and nightlife, available in a form and abundance comparable to that in other world capitals. Mumbai's history as a major trading centre has led to a diverse range of cultures, religions and cuisines coexisting in the city. This unique mix of cultures is due to the migration of people from all over India since the 1600s. Mumbai residents celebrate both Western and Indian festivals. Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas,

Navratri, Good Friday, Dussera, Moharram, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja and Maha Shivratri are some of the popular festivals in the city. The Banganga Festival is a two-day music festival, held annually in the month of January, which is organised by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) at the historic Banganga Tank in Mumbai. The Elephanta Festival—celebrated every February on the Elephanta Islands—is dedicated to classical Indian dance and music and attracts performers from across the country.

Public holidays specific to the city and the state include Maharashtra Day on May 1, to celebrate the formation of Maharashtra state on 1 May 1960. CHRONIC RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS IN MUMBAI: Bombay has a very high incidence of chronic respiratory problems, arising from extreme air pollution. The causes of pollution are mainly industries in the eastern suburbs and New Bombay, garbage burning by the BMC, and insufficient control over emission levels from vehicles. Gas Chembur: Nightly burning of garbage at the 100 hectare Municipal Garbage Dump north of the Chembur-Vashi road affects Chembur, Ghatkopar, Mankhurd and New Bombay.

Environmental Health Rights Organization of India (EHROI) claims that the level of particulate matter around the dump is about 2000 microgrammes per cubic meter. WHO norms put an upper limit of 150. A recent study by the Environmental Pollution Research Centre (EPRC) found that about 10% of the population of Chembur suffer from bronchitis and respiratory distress caused by pollution. The study found that Sulphur dioxide levels have fallen in recent years, whereas nitrogen dioxide levels have risen. South Bombay:

The 22 air monitoring stations owned by the BMC carry out routine checks of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and suspended particulate

matter. Carbon mono-oxide levels are not monitored. A recent study by the EPRC found very high levels of this gas from traffic exhausts. The high-risk areas were found to be VT, Bhendi Bazar and Parel. New Bombay: Located close to Thane-Belapur, the largest chemical industry zone in Asia, New Bombay is exposed to high levels of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals released by these industries.

Studies conducted in 1974 had led the Central Public Health Engineering Research Institute to oppose the proposed location of New Bombay. However, CIDCO ignored this advice and proceeded with the development. In a representation to the National Human Rights Commission, it has been pointed out that several chemical factories flout regulations by releasing noxious gases clandestinely at night. The memorandum alleges that chemical industries have not made investements into effluent processing. Crowded city * Although India remains 70-80% rural, it now has the largest urban population in the world – many of whom are slum dwellers. Every day, 550 million gallons of drinking water must be brought to Mumbai from a distance of over 100 miles. Two million people live with no toilet facilities. * Forty per cent of the formal sector jobs in Mumbai are concentrated within a two-mile radius of Flora Fountain around the Fort. There are 144 jobs for every 100 residents in the Fort area, creating enormous congestion. * There are more than 23 million vehicles in India. Over 60,000 people are killed on India’s roads each year. * Each day, despite large amounts of recycling, Mumbai produces 5,000 tons of garbage.

Chemical related disasters in past 10 years. * 1985: chlorine gas leak in Thane, 1

killed, 129 injured. * 1985: benzyl chloride gas leakage, 95 injured. * 1985: chlorine gas leak in Chembur, 1 killed, 149 injured. * 1985: chlorine gas leak in Thane, 141 affected. * 1988: refinery blaze at Chembur, 35 killed. * 1990: gas leak at Nagothane, 32 killed. * 1991: accident while nitrogen gas being transported on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, 100 killed. * 1993: gas leak at Kalyam, 9 killed, 123 injured. MIGRANTS IN MUMBAI In 1780 there were only 114,000 people in Mumbai.

Today there are over 15 million. The price of land equals that of New York or Tokyo. And Mumbai has a population density of more than 17,000 people per square kilometer. THE SLUMS OF MUMBAI “Everywhere on the ground lay sleeping natives-- hundreds and hundreds. They lay stretched at full length and tightly wrapped in blankets, heads and all. Their attitude and rigidity counterfeited death” Mark Twain, on a nocturnal drive through Bombay in 1896 History of Slums:

Late in the 17th century, Gerald Aungier tried to attract traders and artisans to Bombay. As a result, the population grew six-fold in the fourteen years between 1661 and 1675. Some of the more prosperous traders built houses inside the British fort. The rest lived in crowded "native-towns" around the walls. These were probably the first slums to grow in Bombay. The problem of overcrowding certainly remained through the 18th century. A count made in 1794 found 1000 houses inside the fort walls and 6500 immediately outside.

All over the world, the 19th century saw the growth of slums give the lie to the idea of progress brought on by large-scale industrialization and the

understanding and control of diseases. Bombay was no exception. The cotton boom, followed by the rapid growth of mills and shipping drew a large population from the rest of the country into a city ill-equipped to deal with them. In the middle of the 19th century slums grew around the mills and other places of employment. The Birth of Slums Historically, slums have grown in Bombay as a response to a growth of population far beyond the capacity of existing housing.

Migrants are normally drawn to the city by the huge disparity between urban and rural income levels. Usually the residents of these densely populated enclaves live close to their place of work. The residential area itself does not provide employment. Bombay knows another reason for the formation of slums. As the city grew, it took over land that was traditionally used for other purposes. The Koli fishermen were displaced during the development of the harbour and port. Those driven out of the fishing villages improvised living space that was often far shabbier than before.

This process continues even now, at the end of the 20th century. On the other hand, some villages were encysted by the city growing around them. Dharavi, originally a village with a small tanning industry, has become a slum in this fashion. Many of the older slums in Byculla and Khar were initially separate villages, with their own traditional. Situation prevailing in slums SettlementCriteria| Dharavi| Settlement Unit’Bharantinga NagarEkta’ (Kurla)| Slum in Kalina | Matfalan, a Slum Close to Thane| Population| 800,000-1,000,000| 15,000| 2,500| 25,000| Slum since| ; 20 years| 16 years| 1910| ; 20 years|

ReligiousStructure| All religious groups, but

mostly in segregated settlements| Ethnically homogeneousstructure, Muslims| Ethnically homogeneousstructure, Neobuddhist| All religiousgroups, no ethnic heterogenization| SettlementStructure| Originally encourages anintermix of religiousgroups, but after the 1993riots religious segregation,settlement patterns, access to place of originand linguistic criteria| Community playsan important role,but no politicalengagement due to a ‘lack of time’| Community plays a key role for theInhabitants ; community collectsmoney for inhabitants ; very directly informal networking community|

However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100 even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts. The continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice is expected, with warming being strongest in the Arctic. Other likely effects include increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions, and changes in agricultural yields. Global warming in Mumbai. Mumbai is among the world's cities that are vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels.

The study, published in the journal Environment and Urbanization, listed Mumbai among cities Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, Jakarta and Dhaka being some of the others where millions are at risk of flooding and heavy storms. The study puts the number of people living in threatened coastal areas that lie at less than 33 feet above sea level -- worldwide at 634 million, and growing. The study, said to be the first to identify the world's low-lying coastal areas, said that some 75 percent of all people living in vulnerable areas are in Asia. The five nations

with the largest total population living in risky coastal areas are all in Asia: China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.

St Petersburg, Barcelona and New York - who faced similar situation like Mumbai, have come out with their own solutions. At St Petersburg, they constructed a dam outside the city limit and also a wall because of which the high tide does not hit the city directly. Though this is not possible for a city like Mumbai, which is surrounded by sea. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was geared up for the day and had taken several precautionary measures, like evacuating people from low-lying areas. NOISE POLLUTION Noise is probably the most frequently forgotten of the environmental pollutants, yet its effects can be many and far-reaching. Millions of people on all continents are exposed to unhealthy levels of noise.

Perhaps 150 million US citizens live in areas where the daily average noise levels exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's safe noise level of an average of 55 decibels. What is a truly safe level of noise is controversial; levels of between 55 and 65 dB have been used for planning purposes in the USA and have been called "acceptable". In Hong Kong over a million people live in even noisier environments. Sources of noise pollution The sources of noise pollution vary. In some places noise from construction projects predominates, vehicular traffic or noise from airports. Other sources include the noise in occupational settings or even the noise of simultaneous conversations.

Effects of noise pollution Noise pollution affects nearly every aspect of life and probably has damaging physical effects as well. The best-studied and best-defined effect on

physical health is the effect of noise on hearing. The research results are clear: loud or sustained noise can damage hearing. The source of the noise is not very important; it can be a pile driver or rock music. What is important is that it can have a lasting impact. Noise pollution also impacts people's sleep. It can result in mood problems and adversely affect job performance. Several research studies suggest that noise can cause high blood pressure and psychiatric diseases.

Some of these studies are controversial and are contested by other researchers because so many variables such as age,state of health, diet, smoking and drinking habits, socioeconomic factors, and other sources of environmental and social are taken into account . It is clear, however, that noise, even though a "non-specific stressor", does cause a physical response. It elicits the same responses as a perceived physical threat would produce: it activates the nervous system, causes the muscles to tense and the heart rate and respiratory rate to increase and prepares the body to fight or to run away. This response-called the "fight or flight" response--underlies all responses to stress. The long-term effects of this kind of stimulus, of being ready to flee or give battle, are not completely understood.

Being continuously under stress is something like sitting on the edge of your chair or waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is also important to remember that people who sense that they have some control over what happens in their lives are impacted less strongly by stressors than those who feel they have no control, and noise is something over which we have very

little control. Noise affects us in another significant way: people exposed to noise feel a greater sense of frustration and annoyance than people whose environment is not as noisy. Annoyance is the expression of the negative feelings experienced when one's activities or the enjoyments of one’s surroundings are disrupted.

Annoyance can have a major impact on the quality of life and is generally a variable examined when studying the impact of noise. In addition to the other environmental pollutants, noise can affect not only our moods but also our physical well being, and, just like water and air pollution, must be subject to greater study and more stringent controls. How to reduce the noise pollution There are some things you can do to help yourself while governments get around to tightening the standards for noise pollution, though. You can use air conditioning to allow you to keep windows closed during the noisiest times of the day. This is of course only an interim solution, since air onditioning uses more electricity which raises your energy costs and also requires more power plants which in turn create more air or other forms of pollution. Furthermore, when rooms are closed up indoor air pollution becomes a problem. But it can be a good short-term solution. You can buy small noise-canceling devices which sample the frequencies of sound and create other sound waves which in essence collide with the noxious sounds and batter them into other, less disturbing sounds. These devices are relatively effective. You can use other sound-generating devices such as stereo systems, which cover up some of the more disturbing sounds with more pleasurable ones. This is

short-term solution.

And of course, if none of the other suggestions works, you can become active in your community to work with your local authorities to devise solutions to the problem of noise pollution which may be uniquely suited to you and to the place you live, making life wherever you may be better for everyone. INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION Drive down the Mumbai-Pune highway and you will witness the horrible truth of industrialization. Hundreds of industrial units dealing with chemicals and fertilisers dump their sludge along the roadside. Chimneys emit gases that make breathing difficult. “Industrial units never stop polluting, and people cannot stop working for them.

So, it is a treadmill that ends only with a painful death,” says Rajesh Panicker, an industrial worker of Panvel in Maharashtra. A few hours of travelling northwards of Mumbai will take you to the Vapi Industrial Estate of southern Gujarat. At Kolak village, about 15 km away from the estate, you will get statistics of a very different kind. “Sixty people have died of cancer in the village in the past 10 years, while 20 others are fighting a losing battle,” says Ganpat B Tandel, former sarpanch (head) of the village council, who has been vehemently opposing pollution of the Kolak river by the industrial estate. Nearly 20 years ago, cancer cases were not so rampant.

But factories of the estate, which produce pesticides, agrochemicals, organ chlorines dyes and dye intermediates, have been dumping untreated effluents in the river. Most residents of the village are fisher folk who eat fish from the river. In Maharashtra, the problem is compounded by the absence of credible data. “It is difficult

to find any data on the environmental status. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board does not come out with any study on pollution. So the people do not have strong baseline data to contest the powerful industry lobby,” says T N Mahadevan, a scientist who is also the secretary of Society for Clean Air, a Mumbai based NGO. Lack of information paralyses the battle against pollution. ” Case study of industrial pollution Mohanty has been working in the Daru Khana ship breaking yard of Chembur for the past 15 years. It is a life without any dignity due to a living being. Everyday for 8-10 hours he inhales toxic fumes from the abandoned ships that he breaks. The fear of explosion looms large. His best friend died last month in an explosion while breaking a ship. “In the past 15 years, I have got tuberculosis three times. The doctors say I have to quit this job and to shift to a cleaner place,” he says. He stays in Deonar, Maharashtra’s largest solid waste dumping ground.

In violation of a Mumbai High Court orders, prohibiting burning of wastes, wastes are still burnt in Deonar. For Aniruddha, clean air is impossibility. CONCLUSION People should be precautious in what they drink, eat and breathe . People should not sit aside and watch. People should take initiate to recycle and use. They should be precautionary measures so that Mumbai remains a better place to live. We should leave a better world for our children to live on. We should not be in a situation where our children point at us and say ‘because of them we are living in a

dirty world’. Let us work towards creating a cleaner world so that our children can lead a happy life.

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Environment: Pollution and Mumbai

This paper presents the dynamics of environmental problems in Iambi city. An evolution concept is applied to study the present environmental status of Iambi. In order to study its dynamics, the entire process of environmental evolution is divided into four types biz. Poverty related environmental issues, industrialization- and arbitration-related environmental issues, rapid economic growth-related environmental issues and wealthy lifestyle-related environmental issues. Dynamics of suitable indicators for all the above issues over the economic development has been studied.

Temporal representation of respective indicator for each type of the environmental problem presented the distribution of these types of environmental problems on a longitudinal scale.

In the analysis it is found that, at present Iambi has prevalence to rapid economic development- related environmental problems. Overpopulated environmental issues show very little significance. Industrialization– and urban-related environmental issues coexist with rapid economic development-related environmental issues. This provides the necessary inputs to city planner so as to avoid various environmental costs that other cities have already experienced.

Introduction Bombay, since independence, has been the center for development and financial activities of India. Minus. Yodel Nadir Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Vida Mark, Gorgon(E), 400 065 Iambi, India E- mail: [email protected] Mom Present address: S. Yodel Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 240 01 15 Yamaha, Gangway, Japan 1 actuating sector has been the major force in Bombay creating potential for employment, and that had resulted in migration of rural population. This influx has created an increased demand for sharing the limited public resources and infrastructure available in the island city.

As the place became scarce the real estate value shot up driving the public to the suburbs.

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As a result, expansion of Greater Bombay in 1971 was almost entirely due to its suburbs’ groom. In 1 981 the city’s population of 3. 3 million was far outpaced by the suburb population of 5 million (MAPI 1998). With these trends intuiting Bombay city, in the post-independence period has been facing severe resource constraints.

This growth has further exacerbated the city’s problems by overstraining its services in catering to the hordes of commuters, all heading each morning for south Bombay where the port, business offices and administrative offices are located. High population growth, inward migration and arbitration put stress on resources. Increasing economic activity and per capita income further stresses the resources and “common goods” (BOMBARD 1996). This phenomenon creates a wider scope for increased environmental concerns, which are multifaceted ND also cross-sector. For various social and administrative reasons, Bombay was renamed as Iambi during late 1 sass.

At present Iambi is the largest metropolitan city in India with very distinct characteristics as presented in Table 1 . Environmental management concerns In the history of Bombay, there is not much note Of environmental concerns. Being an island, Bombay has high assimilation potential, which made this city less environmentally concerned (Kombi 1986). However, in light with the above-described features, post-independence era of Iambi witnessed numerous developments, both economically and environmentally. Due to abundant employment opportunities, migration had been so predominant and till 1971 migrants constituted Bombay has been renamed as Iambi during late sass Table 1 Socio-economic indicators of Iambi Indicator Population Literacy rate Employment Per capita income Education Transport Pattern 1 1.

9 million as per 2001 census 1. % of total Indian population and 12% of Maharajah’s State population 82. 4% (national average is 65. 38%) 3. 43 lakes (0.

343 million) main workers and two-third in service sectors Jobs in manufacturing sectors are on a declining trend Almost double to the average state per capita income which in turn is higher than the Indian average Services sector on the whole accounts for 64% of the income generated in Iambi 42 students per teacher at primary school level 35 students per teacher in secondary/higher secondary school level 2,145 local train services per day 2,275 million passengers per day by local trains 4. Million passengers per day by BEST (State road transport system), which is the highest among all metropolitan cities in India 25% of domestic and 38% of international passenger traffic in India 26% of domestic and 40% international cargo in India Air traffic Source: Census of India (2001), SEEMS (2002), http://www. Indicates. Com, http:// www. Bombardiers.

Org the major population growth in Iambi. This has created a wider set of environmental problems biz. Lack of sanitation facilities, lack of drinking water, increased incidence of cholera. Rapid industrialization took place with most of the industrial clusters located in the vicinity of Chamber, which turned it into a “gas chamber with exceedingly high concentrations of air pollution (Pariah et al. 1995).

Increased economic activity resulted in steep rise in transport demands and the vehicular stock. Increased stock of automobiles, most of them being used for decades together, created numerous environmental problems. Ambient air concentrations of Suspended Particulate Matter (CPM), Nitrogen Oxides (Knox) and other hydrocarbons have crossed the allowable limits creating health problems to the Iambi public (World Bank 1997). Increased incidence of tuberculosis was observed, and it is an indicator of the impacts of pollution on Iambi population (Pariah et al. 1995).

Urban transport sector is known for contributing greenhouse gas (GOGH) to the atmosphere. With further economic development and the influence of esters “throw away”‘ cultures, new environmental problems have started cropping up, and increased per capita generation of municipal solid waste (MS) is an example of such development. Lack of appropriate recycling system and infrastructure adds to the problem. Increased per capita energy consumption, particularly in an unsustainable way, creates much more stress on the environment. With the economic development of the city the set of environmental problems keeps changing.

It is clear from the above description that the concerns of environmental management follow a trend: Poverty-related issue?rapid industrialization issues?rapid economic growth- related issues?wealthy lifestyle-related issues. As these issues are cross- sector in nature, conventional environmental management dealing with a particular type of problem fails to address the indirect impacts resulting from environmental issues. Therefore, it is essential to adopt a macro approach with an evolutionary perspective. Environmental evolution: concept and development In cities like Iambi, the arbitration process is coupled with industrialization and followed by rapid economic growth. As explained by ABA 2001), in this process, words like “change” or “growth” can describe the situation far more adequately than “equilibrium” which makes the dynamic viewpoint an inevitable feature in dealing with the urban environment and its management.

The municipalities, which in most countries are the responsible bodies for environmental management, lack long-term understanding and planning of environment. They deal with the environment “as it comes to them”. With such an approach, decisions often tend to be shortsighted and lack broadness in scope. As many of the cities are undergoing rapid change owe, the environmentally benign future of these cities can still be shaped, at least partly. If these cities can learn from the successful experiences as well as failures of other cities, they might avoid paying some of the unnecessary environmental costs their fellow cities have paid (e.

G. Heavy industrial pollution due to the use of primitive technologies). For this purpose, it is essential to have a systematic understanding of how urban environments change and what drives the change. So far, the dynamic feature of the urban environment is treated as a risk rather than an opportunity. It is often shadowed by the overwhelming complexity of the issue.

Viewing this as an opportunity needs an improved conceptual and theoretical understanding about what kind of changes are taking place in urban environment, and how the process is driven. In various studies, ABA and co-workers (ABA and Muar 2000; ABA 2001, 2002) have explained the evolutionary viewpoint of the urban environmental change with empirical evidences from East Asian cities like Tokyo, Seoul, where the most rapid social, economic and environmental changes have taken place over the last several decades. The importance of introducing the temporal dimension and an ecological viewpoint in urban environmental studies was pointed out by Douglas (1988) in his study of Manchester City, England, in which he linked urban growth, physical change and human impact succession. In addition to the temporal dimension, ABA and Muar (2000) further emphasized the importance of viewing urban environmental change as an evolutionary’ process. Often environmental problems are cross-sector and complex.

Categorization of these issues into several types helps to reduce the complexity of the issue. This categorization loud be done based on various parameters like type of impacts, driving forces, etc. Taking into consideration these different driving forces and the spatial scale of the impacts of these problems, ABA and Muar (2000) categorized urban environmental problems into three types: poverty-related issues, rapid-growth and production-related issues and consumption or wealthy lifestyle-related issues. Based on the available literature and criteria used by other researchers (ABA and Muar 2000; Sweatshirts 1997; World Resources Institute 1997), environmental problems in Iambi are categorized into four groups biz. Poverty-related issues, rapid industrialization- and arbitration-related issues, rapid economic growth-related issues and wealthy lifestyle-related issues.

This helps in better understanding of the dynamic process of change in a developing city like Iambi. Table 2 presents typical issues under each category and the major impacts associated and scale of impact. Behavioral patterns of typical issue Poverty-related issues of environmental management are prevalent when the economy is low. Lack of safe drinking water and sanitation resulting in health problems is a classical example of poverty-related environmental issues. Malnutrition results in increasing infant mortality rates (MIR).

As the economy rises, income levels grow and it results in controlling these issues. This falling trend of poverty-related issues continue until the level reaches a significant low. This could be due to the fact that the growing income provides additional resources and capacity to improve public services. Macro-economic approach explains the environmental management and its behavior. When the economy is not strong, production-related activity receives the top priority leaving a wider scope for environment deterioration and resource depletion.

After achieving a certain level of economic improvement the environment gets better due to the increasing affordability to take up pollution control measures and increased awareness and preference for cleaner environment among people. This pattern is often referred to as Environmental Junket Curve (EKE) (Hilton and Hank 1 998; World Bank 1992). Though it is not universally proved for all pollutants, EKE concept explains the behavior of most of the pollutants visit-a-visit economic development. The pattern of this inverted IS curve varies depending on the environmental regulations, tutorial changes in the economy, technological improvement, energy efficiency and trade. Category of consumption-related issues, rapid economic growth-related issues and wealthy lifestyle-related issues, does not improve with economy.

They keep rising with the economy with a possible time lag between them. This trend is observed in cases like per capita MS generation, per capita carbon dioxide emissions, per capita energy consumption and other indicators (World bank 1992; LIND 2002). Reasons for this pattern could be?most of these problems are not of much significance for local governing bodies. As they are global in nature they could e easily externalities. Unlike the local pollution problems these issues fail to catch the public notice, as they are not directly harmful.

Thus, there exists very little incentive for the municipal authorities to Types of urban environmental issues It is a convention to segregate the environmental-related problems into different segments for easy and efficient management of environment. Environmental problems are segmented into water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, solid waste problem, etc. Due to its easiness in handling and executing counter measure, most of the municipalities adopt this segmented tatter of environmental management. However, many environmental problems are not only cross-sector but also have external impacts which are not captured in the conventional approach of urban environmental management. This classification ceases the opportunity of synergies action between sectors involved in handling the environmental problems.

For instance, focus on response strategies for air pollution control in Iambi could overlook its contribution to the GOGH emission problem. However, by focusing on transportation and related energy issue one can capture both the problems of air pollution and GOGH emissions. Better way to go about this cross-sector environmental problem is to identify the driving force or categorize them based on the type of impacts instead of sectors like air, water and solid waste. This approach provides an opportunity to capture the externalities (like health- and energy-related implications) of the environmental problems as well. This could encompass most of the direct and indirect indicators of environmental concern.

Table 2 Categorization of environmental issues in Iambi Type Type I :Poverty-related issues Typical issues Low access to safe drinking water; intimidation of water bodies Causes Inadequate infrastructure; rapid population growth; income disparity Major impact Spatial extent of impacts Increased incidence of Local infant mortality; sanitation-related health impacts such as diarrhea, cholera Type II :illumination’s- Air pollution, water Rapid industrialization; Industrial pollution Local, regional and arbitration-related contamination; industrial low rates disasters like the one in issues solid waste; poor of emission treatment, lack of Opal, India; disturbance urban sanitation efficient management to the ecosystem; health robbers like tuberculosis due to air pollution Type Ill :Rapid economic CA emissions; Knox Increased mobility; Global warming; acid Local, regional growth-related issues emissions; noise pollution; more emphatic rains; heaps of garbage; municipal solid waste economic activity; less priority blockage of sewers on environment Type IV :Withy Overburdening of energy High consumption; rich lifestyle; Chemical ingredient and Regional, global lifestyle- related and natural resource; low incentives for improvement dioxin-caused issues dioxins abnormalities; overcorrection of resources Andre these issues of global importance while they have much more pressing issues to handle in local domain. The future trends of these issues are uncertain. The curves beyond a certain level of income could stabilize or even decline. But this trend could not be observed even from today’s richest states (ABA and Muar 2000). In spite of various government initiatives to change the consumption patterns, there is no evidence of any downward turn in these curves (COED 1998).

For a poor economy like India, it is possible that the first two types of issues are prominent. However, in the case of Iambi, t is possible to notice both types Ill and IV, as the per capita income levels are much higher compared to the national average. Selection of indicators and analysis of trends For the analysis of the above-listed issues, their behavior with time and space, set of indicators are identified for each stage. These indicators are used to compare the characteristics of the current urban environmental situation. Indicators representing poverty-related environmental issues include population dynamics with detailed indicators such as total population and population growth rates; income levels with detailed indicators such as per pita income; nutrition, health and welfare issues with indicators such as MIR, death from infectious diseases, illiteracy ratio, per capita medical expenses; infrastructure and environmental pollution, with indicators such as access to drinking water and sanitation and incidence of diseases like cholera/ diarrhea.

MIR was chosen as a representative indicator for this category of environmental problems. MIR is the result of malnutrition and is a good measure of the poverty in any city. There is multi-fold decrease in MIR, which is an indication of improved health in Iambi (Raw 1990). It is observed that Poverty-related issues are on a declining trend in Iambi. This is more substantiated by the fact that the Iambi water supply and sanitation status is improving over the last few decades (COM 2002; BOMBARD 1996).

Indicators for the rapid industrialization and arbitration issues include the pattern of industrial growth in Iambi?number of units and employment generation history; GAP contribution of industrial sector; arbitration and employment patterns with indicators such as employment patterns, unemployment levels, arbitration ratio, migration levels; resource use and pollution with indicators such as electricity consumption by industries, CPM levels, SOX and Knox patterns, water contamination. Knox was chosen as a representative indicator for this category of environmental problems. Rapid economic growth phase had started with economic reforms in 1 993 and the pattern of many indicators had changed thereafter. This phenomenon is clearly observed in terms of foreign exchange earned (CAME 2001 http:// www. Indicates.

Com). Other indicators for this stage of environmental problems are increase in vehicular stock, rise in energy demand, air pollution, GOGH emissions and electricity consumption. Electricity consumption was chosen as a representative indicator for this category of environmental problems. Electricity consumption in Iambi has increased substantially. Industry and commercial sectors have equal share in the electricity consumption.

A steep rise from late 1 sass is observed (http:// www. Indicates. Com). This rise in consumption could be attributed to economic growth and increased per capita incomes as well as increased economic activity. Indicators for rich and wealthy lifestyle are not significant in Indian context.

However, given the better economic status that Iambi enjoys among the Indian Intensity of the Problem (on normalized scale of 0-1) Fig. Illustration of different types of environmental problems spanned over economic growth in Iambi MIR MS KNOX Electricity 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 201 0 2020 Year cities, there are traces of these indicators showing significance in the case of Iambi. MS generation, electricity consumption, changes in petrol and gas reserves are the indicators of this category of issues. Percentage of growth in solid waste has increased considerably which is an indicator of increased institution patterns and rich lifestyle that Iambi public enjoys. MS management is one of those very serious problems that Iambi is facing at the moment (Sarnia 2004).

MS was chosen as a representative indicator for this category of environmental problems. Therefore, the stage IV type issues are also identified and analyzed in Iambi. Though it is not possible to predict the future trends/behavior, it helps in assessing the “environmental status” of the city. Are closely clustered. This indicates that the three zones are coexisting in this city of high economic growth and promise.

However, it is possible to identify which one is predominant and which one is in phasing out stage. Future trends of electricity consumption (stage Ill) and waste generation (stage IV) cannot be predicted. The projected values of MS clearly indicate the rising trend with time. A similar trend is observed with electricity also. As it can be seen from Fig.

, Iambi at present stands at stage Ill facing more of rapid economic growth stage-related environmental issues. Poverty-related issues are not of major concern any more whereas there is a spillover from stage II, industrialization- and arbitration-related issues. Stage Ill issues and stage IV issues coexist in Iambi with both of them following rising trends. Acknowledgements This work is a part of urban Environment Project at ICES (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies), Japan. Author acknowledges with sincerity the suggestions given by Dry.

Exhume ABA of AGES, Japan and research inputs and assistance provided by Mr.. Look Kumar and Ms. Joanna Piped at GUID, Iambi, India. Representative indicators from each stage of environmental problems biz. Poverty-related issues, industrialization- and arbitration-related issues, rapid economic growth-related issues and wealthy lifestyle-related issues are airmailed with respect to the corresponding maximum value so as to facilitate cross comparison on a longitudinal scale.

In spite of the fact that Iambi presents one of the efficient public services in the country, poverty level is still high and overcrowding is causing lapses in the system. However, the significance of poverty-related environmental issue is not very high. The representative indicator under this category revealed a steep declining trend.

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Environment: Pollution and Mumbai. (2018, Feb 03). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/

"Environment: Pollution and Mumbai." PaperAp.com , 3 Feb 2018, https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/

PaperAp.com. (2018). Environment: Pollution and Mumbai . [Online]. Available at: https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/ [Accessed: 12 Apr. 2024]

"Environment: Pollution and Mumbai." PaperAp.com, Feb 03, 2018. Accessed April 12, 2024. https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/

"Environment: Pollution and Mumbai," PaperAp.com , 03-Feb-2018. [Online]. Available: https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/. [Accessed: 12-Apr-2024]

PaperAp.com. (2018). Environment: Pollution and Mumbai . [Online]. Available at: https://paperap.com/paper-on-environment-pollution-and-mumbai/ [Accessed: 12-Apr-2024]

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