This book explains how migration is responsible for the destruction of Delhi's environment.

This book looks at two decades of environmental politics in Delhi and argues that 'bourgeois environmentalists' who claim to speak for nature and society have perversely worsened the quality of life for most citizens.

This book looks at the ecological stress on cities and engages with challenges of reducing vulnerabilities and risks of pollution on the health, well-being and livelihoods of people living in developing countries. Cities are the world’s highest energy consumers and the biggest producers of toxic wastes and pollutants. With an emphasis on the environmental issues facing the city of Delhi, the volume focuses on steps to preserve and manage the city’s urban green spaces. It explores the concept of urban green spaces and their economic, social, health, and psychological significance in cities. Drawing from their fieldwork and research in Delhi, the authors identify the sources of pollution in the city and access the role of urban green spaces in countering adverse effects. They further examine the relationship between green spaces and social and economic development, urban health, and urban governance. They highlight the good practices followed by other global cities. The volume also offers suggestions and policy recommendations to reverse and recover ecological balance in cities. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of environment and ecology, public health, urban planning and governance, development studies, urban geography, urban sociology, resource management and health economics. It will also be useful for policy makers, and NGOs working in the areas of sustainability, urban planning and management and environmental preservation.

Air pollution kills over a million Indians every year, albeit silently. Families are thrown into a spiralling cycle of hospital visits, critically poor health and financial trouble impacting their productivity and ability to participate in the economy. Children born in regions of high air pollution are shown to have irreversibly reduced lung function and cognitive abilities that affects their incomes for years to come. They all suffer, silently. The issue is exacerbated every winter, when the Great Smog of India descends and envelops much of northern India. In this period, the health impact from mere breathing is akin to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. The crisis is so grave that it warrants emergency health advisories forbidding people from stepping out. And yet, for most of us, life is business as usual. It isn't that the scientific community and policymakers don't know what causes air pollution, or what it will take to tackle the problem. It is that the problem is social and political as much as it is technological, and human problems are often harder to overcome than scientific ones. Each sector of the economy that needs reform has its underlying political, economic and social dynamics that need to be addressed to make a credible impact on emissions. With clarity and compelling arguments, and with a dash of irony, Siddharth Singh demystifies the issue: where we are, how we got here, and what we can do now. He discusses not only developments in sectors like transport, industry and energy production that silently contribute to air pollution, but also the 'agricultural shock' to air quality triggered by crop burning in northern India every winter. He places the air pollution crisis in the context of India's meteorological conditions and also climate change. Above all, and most alarmingly, he makes clear what the repercussions will be if we remain apathetic.

Contributed articles presented at a workshop convened at Department of History, Delhi University in September 2005.

Authoritative reviews on the wide-ranging ramifications of climate change, from an international team of eminent researchers.

This book discusses air pollution in Delhi from scientific, social and entrepreneurial perspectives. Using key debates and interventions on air pollution, it examines the trajectories of environmental politics in the Delhi region, one of the most polluted areas in the world. It highlights the administrative struggles, public advocacy, and entrepreneurial innovations that have built creative new links between science and urban citizenship. The book describes the atmosphere of collaboration that pervades these otherwise disparate spheres in contemporary Delhi. Key features: · Presents an original case study on urban environmentalism from the Global South · Cuts across science, policy, advocacy and innovation · Includes behind-the-scenes discussions, tensions and experimentations in the Indian air pollution space · Uses immersive ethnography to study a topical and relevant urban issue As South Asian and Global South cities confront fast-intensifying environmental risks, this study presents a dialogue between urban political ecology (UPE) and science and technology studies on Delhi’s air. The book explores how the governance of air is challenged by scales, jurisdictions, and institutional structures. It also shows how technical experts are bridging disciplinary silos as they engage in advocacy by translating science for public understanding. The book serves as a reminder of the enduring struggles over space, quality of life, and citizenship while pointing to the possibilities for different urban futures being negotiated by variegated agents. The book will interest scholars and researchers of science and technology studies, urban studies, urban geography, environmental studies, environmental politics, governance, public administration, and sociology, especially in the Global South context. It will also be useful to practitioners, policymakers, bureaucrats, government bodies, civil society organisations, and those working on air pollution advocacy.