India's dying rivers: How our cities are choking their lifelines
Urban expansion in India has severely degraded major rivers, turning them into polluted drainage channels. The report highlights how encroachment and waste disposal have compromised the ecological health of rivers across several major cities.
Why it matters
This reflects a critical environmental and public health crisis in rapidly urbanizing regions, threatening water security for millions.
NEW DELHI: "Nature provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” The words widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi perhaps resonate nowhere more starkly today than along India’s rivers.From Delhi to Mumbai, Chennai to Hyderabad and Bengaluru, India's urban rivers tell similar stories. They have been straightened, narrowed, encroached upon and increasingly turned into conduits for the waste generated by constantly expanding cities. Rivers that once shaped settlements now survive by carrying sewage.Yet every river has paid a different price.The Yamuna has lost much of its width to floodplain encroachments and water diversion.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in