Urban Conservation
10 URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Suneel Pandey, Shaleen Singhal, Pragya Jaswal, and Manraj Guliani
Great cities are planned and grow without any regard for the fact that they are parasites on the countryside, which must somehow supply food, water, air, and degrade huge quantities of wastes.
—Eugene Odum
Six to seven million people are added annually to urban India. At the beginning of this millennium, 285 million Indians lived in its nearly 4400 towns and cities (Census 2001). It is estimated to rise to 550 million by the year 2021 and 800 million by 2041 when it will surpass China. At that point urban India will be larger than the total population of Europe (NIUA 2000).
Economic growth is both a driving cause as well as the chief outcome of any urbanization process. India is among the ten most industrialized nations of the world. At 8.5 per cent (2003–4) India stands next only to China in terms of per annum GDP growth. In the last decade India’s average growth rate was 6.3 per cent (1994–2004) and it aspires to achieve 8 per cent plus growth rate in the coming decade (Table 10.1).
Much of this boom has been experienced in the larger urban areas, where majority of the industrial production is concentrated. Cities act as engines of economic growth, contributing to 60 per cent of the national income. After India embarked upon economic reforms in 1991, the percentage of poverty fell from 36 per cent in 1993 to 26 per cent in 2000. This new found prosperity has not only led to a greater collective demand for a variety of goods, but also that traditional lifestyles have been altered in pursuit of an increasingly ‘modern’ way of living.
Per capita urban energy consumption has been increasing in the recent years. Demand for packaged consumer goods has increased several folds even in rural areas. These
Table 10.1
GDP Growth Rates of India in the Last Decade
Year|GDP growth rate|
1994–5|7.3|
1995–6|7.3|
Suneel Pandey, Shaleen Singhal, Pragya Jaswal, and Manraj Guliani
Great cities are planned and grow without any regard for the fact that they are parasites on the countryside, which must somehow supply food, water, air, and degrade huge quantities of wastes.
—Eugene Odum
Six to seven million people are added annually to urban India. At the beginning of this millennium, 285 million Indians lived in its nearly 4400 towns and cities (Census 2001). It is estimated to rise to 550 million by the year 2021 and 800 million by 2041 when it will surpass China. At that point urban India will be larger than the total population of Europe (NIUA 2000).
Economic growth is both a driving cause as well as the chief outcome of any urbanization process. India is among the ten most industrialized nations of the world. At 8.5 per cent (2003–4) India stands next only to China in terms of per annum GDP growth. In the last decade India’s average growth rate was 6.3 per cent (1994–2004) and it aspires to achieve 8 per cent plus growth rate in the coming decade (Table 10.1).
Much of this boom has been experienced in the larger urban areas, where majority of the industrial production is concentrated. Cities act as engines of economic growth, contributing to 60 per cent of the national income. After India embarked upon economic reforms in 1991, the percentage of poverty fell from 36 per cent in 1993 to 26 per cent in 2000. This new found prosperity has not only led to a greater collective demand for a variety of goods, but also that traditional lifestyles have been altered in pursuit of an increasingly ‘modern’ way of living.
Per capita urban energy consumption has been increasing in the recent years. Demand for packaged consumer goods has increased several folds even in rural areas. These
Table 10.1
GDP Growth Rates of India in the Last Decade
Year|GDP growth rate|
1994–5|7.3|
1995–6|7.3|