Urban areas News

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Municipal bonds need more than incentives to fund India’s cities [Commentary]

Ravikant Joshi 11 Mar 2026
A spotted owlet at IIHS Kengeri campus, Bengaluru. Image by Jagdish Krishnaswamy.

Study finds urban nature-based solutions overlook biodiversity

Aisiri Amin 2 Mar 2026
A waste picker drinks water while working during a heat wave at a garbage dump on the outskirts of Jammu. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Cities may heat up disproportionately faster than rural neighbours, even at 2°C warming

Manish Chandra Mishra 20 Feb 2026
A man carrying a child covers their heads with a cloth to protect themselves from the heat in Jammu. (AP Photo/ Channi Anand)

Heat stress is intensifying across Indian states, shows data [Analysis]

Poonguzhali R.P., Brinda Viswanathan, K.S. Kavi Kumar 22 Dec 2025
A painted balloon frog at Mallathalli lake. Image by Seshadri K.S.

What expanding cities are doing to frogs and toads

Aisiri Amin 16 Dec 2025
Sushma Devi (in green), a paryavaran sakhi, demonstrates the use of an air quality monitor to women in Mahuda village, Dhanbad. Image courtesy of Deshaj Abhikram.

Grassroots women map air pollution hotspots, spur a coal company to curb dust

Vandana K. 11 Dec 2025
An exhibit depicts saline intrusion into homes along Kochi’s backwaters. Image by K.A. Shaji.

Art as a tool to enable resilience against tidal flooding

K.A. Shaji 10 Dec 2025
According to the PMC, the priority stretch between Sangamwadi and Bund Garden is nearly complete. Image by Stephin Thomas.

As a riverfront plan advances, ecologists warn of damage to floodplains, biodiversity

Stephin Thomas 9 Dec 2025
Workers at a bakery get newly baked pav ready for sale. Image by Megha Acharya/Mongabay-India.

Clean fuel mandate pushes Mumbai’s traditional pav bakeries away from coal

Esha Lohia 5 Dec 2025
Ulsoor lake in Bengaluru. Image by Ramesh NG via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Environmentalists concerned over size-based buffer zones for water bodies

Aisiri Amin 2 Dec 2025

New study highlights emerging disease risk from mosquitoes

Bharti Dharapuram 2 Dec 2025
Toxic pollutants from industries on Bellundur lake in Bengaluru, Karnataka. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

How excess rains and poor wastewater management send microplastics into city lakes

T. V. Padma 30 Oct 2025

Intense rainfall spotlights the fault in Kolkata’s aging, clogged drainage systems

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya 30 Sep 2025
A man applies reflective paint to the roof of a house to cool the indoors in Ahmedabad. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

A whole-system approach to cooling in a warming world [Commentary]

Prima Madan, Akash Goenka 25 Aug 2025
Saplings planted alongside Buddha Nullah in Ludhiana. Image by Manu Moudgil.

A heat map-based plantation programme turns into a missed opportunity

Manu Moudgil, Simrin Sirur 18 Jul 2025
A Waste-to-Energy plant is being constructed within the dumping ground, close to residential areas. Image by Esha Lohia.

Redevelopment plan sparks fear of displacement and toxic relocation

Esha Lohia 10 Jul 2025
Flood-affected areas in Amreli, Gujarat in June 2015. Image by Indian Air Force, licensed under Government Open Data License – India (GODL).

Data deserts and drowning cities [Commentary]

Soumya Bhowmick 25 Jun 2025
A view of Bengaluru city from an apartment complex in Banashankari. Image by Kushagra140 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Peri-urban building rush fuels urban heat islands

Max Martin 19 May 2025
A delivery agent at work. Representative image by Rowan Freeman via Unsplash.

Urban commons shape the lives of India’s gig workers [Commentary]

Nupur Khanter 14 May 2025
A market in Mysuru, Karnataka. Several Indian cities are introducing amnesty schemes to encourage property owners to clear pending taxes. Image by Kundan Pandey for Mongabay.

Property tax revenue could help cities adapt to a hotter world

Kundan Pandey 28 Mar 2025