SPRF
The clock for climate urgency is ticking, figuratively and literally. The New York City Climate Clock, which displays the countdown to the deadline, represents the time remaining before the world crosses over the carbon budget. Currently, the clock shows a digital red countdown of just over 2 years, 339 days to limit global warming to […]
Introduction There is a certain assurance in repetition. The otherwise macabre seems to dwindle beneath successive layers of (un)remembering. The eyes learn to adjust, to look away from the portrait of human misery. To live within this recurring reign of terror, to experience it not as an interruption of ordinary life but as one of […]
Every day since summer began, Manju Kadam walks through the narrow lanes from her tiny home made out of corrugated tin sheets in Mangalwar Peth, an urban slum in Pune city. She carries her youngest child in her lap, sweating in the scorching afternoon heat, fatigue clearly visible on her face. She braves the indoor […]
Introduction India’s textile industry is 5,000 years old and remains the “spinning wheel” of the country’s industrial and economic growth. As a global leader in fibre-to-fashion, India accounts for 4 per cent of global textile and apparel trade (Department of Textiles, Government of Maharashtra, and Primus Partners, 2025). Behind those numbers lies a reality of […]
Forest-dwelling communities share a deep relationship with nature, but more than that, they bear witness to history and provide insight into the management of forests. According to the State of Forests Report of 2019, approximately 300 million people are dependent on forests in India (PIB Delhi, 2023). The romanticisation of indigenous, forest-dwelling communities often limits […]
Rising global temperatures are intensifying climate hazards at an unprecedented rate. In 2025, the global annual average temperature increase reached 1.44 ± 0.09 °C (2.60 ± 0.17 °F) above the pre-industrial period, making it the third warmest year on record (Berkeley Earth, 2026). India, among the most climate vulnerable countries, experienced extreme weather events on 99 […]
Abstract The Yamuna River, spanning 1,376 kilometres from its source at Yamunotri to its confluence with the Ganga, faces a severe pollution crisis, particularly in its 22-kilometre Delhi stretch, which accounts for 79% of the river’s total pollution despite representing only 2% of its catchment area. Despite substantial budgetary allocations totalling ₹9,178 crores under the […]
Introduction The Yamuna’s pollution is largely contributed to by untreated sewage. It has been largely reported that the Najafgarh and the Shahdara drain contribute significantly to the pollution of the river along its Delhi stretch. The Najafgarh drain, which runs across the southwest part of the city, ultimately meets the river at Wazirabad. The Najafgarh […]
Introduction Urban waste management is one of the most urgent challenges confronting India’s fast-growing metropolises, and Delhi represents the depth of this crisis. According to a recent life‑cycle assessment of Delhi’s solid waste management system, the city collects around 11,352 tonnes per day of domestic and commercial garbage, which in the absence of adequate segregation and […]
Abstract Over the past decade, efforts to rejuvenate the Yamuna river have been marked by ambitious plans, significant public expenditure, and highly visible interventions along the floodplains. This paper argues that the persistent gaps in the efforts stem from a fragmented and largely cosmetic approach. Drawing on the data from the forestry interventions and the […]