Always a blind spot

I look at the rhetoric surrounding Elections 2009 and wonder – has any political party promised to improve the state of the environment for you and me? Or thought about our right to fresh air or clean water – commodities that have become a rarity in an urbanising India? Over the past few weeks I’ve

Ask for Water from your MP, nothing Else!

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Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Investment Vs Justice

BHOPAL, THE capital city of Madhya Pradesh, is also known as the centre of the ’biggest industrial disaster’ or the ‘Hiroshima of chemical industry’. On December 3, 1984, a union carbide pesticide producing plant leaked highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air of a densely populated region of Bhopal. Of the 800,000 people

India today. Its been 60 years. Right??

Pride in being an Indian, nostalgia for what it must have been like in those heady days ahead of August 15th 1947. Looking at sepia-tinted images of Rajpath on the day India achieved freedom, one can imagine the frenzied crowds, the sense of utter joy at being a free nation. We take freedom for granted

A Truth little inconvenient…

I was though never insensitive to the critical and burning issue of environmental hazards, but the subject didn’t merit enough attention to put an extra effort in creative awareness. I used to really get agitated when I would see long processions of school children jamming the road. The scene was never a soothing one to

Save Our Ragpickers!

Have you ever noticed the rag pickers who daily forage into the garbage bin near your house? They are the people responsible for cleaning most of the stuff we throw in our garbage! Chances are you have never noticed these rag pickers, but these poorest of the poor rag pickers are the ones who not

DOWn and out : Kick them

Bhopal, the “Hiroshima of the chemical industry,” is the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster. “During the trial, Carbide’s lawyers had argued, shockingly, that an American life was worth more than an Indian life”. The Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL) plant was established in 1969 and had expanded to produce carbaryl in 1979; MIC is an intermediate

Ban That Bulb!

Everyone I talk to seems to know that we should not use incandescent bulbs. Rather, we should use CFL bulbs that save money and help in energy conservation. Yet we have not been able to either ban or phase out incandescent bulbs. Forget rural areas, you will be appalled at the bulb and electricity statistics