This blog would seem like a monologue discussing the challenges our Indian cities are facing as a manifestation of capitalist economic growth. It addresses the aspects of the city that need to be made aware of what unique tangible and intangible aspects our Indian cities holding unique cultural, social and architectural value.
What does our cities possess to be conserved? Why conserve?
Our Indian cities especially the tier - II & Tier - III historic towns are bustling with everyday routines, historical narratives and urban cores with Platero of traditional livelihood practices with economic and social exchanges. Not just as socio-cultural diversity but our cities are also rich in ecological sensitive and support a huge flora and fauna ecosystems.
As time flied, post neo - liberal era has shown us free market concepts where these are characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions. This has strongly impacted our planning systems and paradigms which we as designers, academicians and researchers call it 'the wave of globalization'. Our cities are becoming more of socio-technical societies of consumption which has far gone the notions of historicity and ecological sensitivity. We are building townships on fragile wetlands where there is flooding faced every year despite of any attempts towards effective and environmentally inclusive planning. We are going through the same old bazaar roads and seeing gentrified retailing typologies with less of economic and social exchange. Our lakes and urban commons which have become means for dumping and hence reclaiming as malls and newer typologies of recreation.
Now one may feel that the above said narratives are so common to every city that the question arises if we keep conserving everything how do we accept the newer socio- cultural arrangements in the society? How can we tackle the ever increasing density of people, cars and consumption patterns? The trend has already been set how can we stop it and how much can we resist to the capitalist nature of city growth?
Even if one decides they cannot reach to a solution. The solution is accepting the socio-cultural arrangements in a way which could easily be adapted and fused by relishing the historicity and tackling the newer challenges. This blog highlights few cases very common in every city. Before that let's understand what are the aspects of conservation that one should be aware of.
Let’s start with our Indian cities. As per world heritage watch report, here are some of the unique places in India which possess the ‘outstanding universal value’. These are natural, cultural and mixed landscapes rich in ecological biodiversity, intangible cultural practices and a mix of both. The concept of “value”: “Values are produced through cultural-social processes, learning and maturing of awareness. Considering the global framework of today’s world, the context for such processes is not limited to local community, but is extended to the international framework.” (Jokilehto J. 2006). One may also argue about the question of “authenticity” & “integrity”. In relation to natural landscapes, the concept of a biotope is defined a region environmentally uniform in conditions and in the flora and fauna which live there. (Jokilehto, 2006). Within a particular habitat, the different organisms living together interact forming an ecosystem within its own functional integrity. In reference to the built environment, the issue of integrity is relevant especially in relation to urban and regional planning processes.
As we came across the term natural landscapes here is a story of Sundarbans that captivates our mind thinking realizing what precious assets are we loosing. Sundarbans known for the wetlands of west Bengal and Bangladesh with huge biodiversity, unique flora and fauna and the local tribal community which is dependent on the natural resources for their livelihood. Over the decade, it has experienced offspringing of large industrial development like cement, coal with its outlet being discharged into the estuaries. As a result wetlands with natural, cultural and livelihood ecosystems is constantly being endangered. Very sadly, Sundarbans being as ‘world heritage site’ under natural landscapes is constantly being ignored and manipulated under various regional planning without any EIA (environmental impact assessment) done towards construction of industries. These industrial plants emit mercury, toxic particulates and harmful smog into the Sundarbans. Moreover, Ship traffic, fuel spills, cooling water intake, coal ash disposal and hot water disposal have high risk of devastating harm to the hilsa (ilish) fishery. “Add the Sundarbans of Bangladesh to the List of World Heritage in Danger, and request an urgent reactive monitoring mission to the site to quantify, map and itemize the full scope and magnitude of massive new industrial risks”.( Sultana Kamal, National Committee for Saving the Sundarbans, 2019).
The image here highlights the reducing mangrove cover due to industrial effluent dumping over the years.
The Lost Lakes of Jabalpur: Lakes being a common resource served multiple functions: ecological, social, and economic since decades. Local communities benefitted as their livelihoods like cattle feeding and household dependencies were a part of daily routine where communities interacted building a social connect. These lakes are many a times a part of temple complex with architectural aesthetics, religious belief systems known for its function as Kunds. “Lake restoration needs to be done in a way that fosters inclusivity and a deeper social-ecological connection, and that goes beyond a focus on recreation and groundwater recharge, for long-term sustainability.” (Unnikrishnan, Hita, and Harini Nagendra, 2018). In today’s era lakes are considered sources of risk, as malarial swamps that needed to be drained and converted again as community recreation and future resources are slowly being converted into “developed” areas such as malls and other infrastructure.
We are constantly facing the challenges of losing place identity, standardization, monotonous urban experience, climate change and urban disasters. It is being high alarming situation when we consider conservation of our architectural, socio-cultural and communal values as a new approach towards building new identity and reviving our urban commons for a vibrant and active public realm.
Do Share your views or opinions. Share the post as much as possible. Awareness is the one way to help our cities today to be safer, livelier and healthier place for live in.
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