The Ridge and the City:Environmental Politics in Delhi
Naresh Kumar Sagar at CPR-Urbanization Project. New Delhi As listeners add here ,Delhi is Delhi with the ridge dividing the city area with natural lence secure right from its inception from epic age of Pandavas and Kauravas when Lord Krishna told Pandavas the best place for the city.The Delhi geologically converging point of Aravalli the oldest range and Youngest range Himalayan Range meeting of Gangetic plain and Thar desert.Old Fort near Delhi Zoo a place of Indraprastha to Indian King Sher Shah Suri palace is mid point of Delhi from security and geological, environmental point of views with river in East ridge on the North an astronomically best location from business and social point of views.Imperials rulers after various thoughts must be advised by the architects to draw a straight line to Raisina hills the closest to the river with backdrop of ridge at majestic middle of Delhi to give democratic footprints for Indian nation to walks through at ease.
· ·Delhi Ridge as Ecology – Forest
Delhi Ridge as Ecology – Forest
Thomas Crowley is the author of the report Fractured Forest: the Political Ecology of the Delhi Ridge, which he wrote while working for the Delhi-based NGO Intercultural Resources. Beginning in October, he will be a Fellow in the Art, Science and Business Program at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany.
Thomas Crowley spoke at
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This presentation explores the environmental politics of the Delhi Ridge, a hilly area that cuts through the National Capital Territory. The Ridge is often described as the green lung of Delhi, a crucial ecological resource in a rapidly-expanding megacity. At present, roughly eighty square kilometres along the Ridge have been notified as Reserved Forests, the highest level of protection the government can give. The earliest notification dates back to 1913, but the vast majority of the area was notified in 1994 and 1996. The current politics of the Ridge largely revolve around its status as a Reserved Forest: whether the notification process has been followed properly; whether the notified areas are being afforested in a timely and ecologically-sensitive manner; whether boundary lines are being drawn properly, if they are being drawn at all; how to handle so-called ‘encroachments’ in the Ridge; and so on. All these issues are important for understanding ecological and political contestations in present-day Delhi.
However, exclusively focusing on the Ridge as a forest obscures a much larger social and environmental shift, which took place over several centuries: the evolution of the Ridge from commonly-owned land used for grazing and firewood collection to a state-owned forest area. But this state-owned zone is surrounded by privately-owned plots used for quarrying, real estate speculation and more, and the boundaries between the two are often quite blurry. Using the theoretical frameworks of political ecology and historical geography, the presentation will analyse these shifts in land use over the longue durée, and explore their implications for ecological and social justice in Delhi today.
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