Development has come to be equated only with growing production and higher GDP growth. This is sought to be achieved via hugely expensive and environmentally damaging urbanisation, the effect of which Delhi is reeling from.
Over the past few weeks, many parts of North India have faced severe flooding, landslides and deaths. The unprecedented floods in Delhi have brought this crisis to national and international attention. The water level in the river Yamuna reached a record high of 208.66 metres, much above the last great flood in Delhi in 1978 – when it had reached 207.49 metres. Yamuna, before it changed its course, used to flow by the ramparts of the Red Fort and once again has arrived there. It has led to the flooding of several projects of ‘development’ – water treatment plants, the arterial ring road, rich and poor residential areas, drainage, etc.
