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Sunita Narain Calls Yamuna “Dead”, Urges Transformative Climate Action

“The one thing that we do not need more of is more reports and more incremental steps to fix what is today an existential crisis.” NEW DELHI (India CSR): Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Padma Shri awardee, delivered a sharp warning on India’s environmental crisis at the inaugural session of the 8th International Conference on Sustainability Education (ICSE) 2026 in New Delhi. “The Yamuna is dead; it just hasn’t been officially cremated,” Narain said, pointing to the severe pollution levels in the river as it passes through Delhi. Referring to CSE’s analysis of India Meteorological Department records, she said India is witnessing an extreme weather event almost every day. Linking the recent Nepal disaster to wider ecological pressures, Narain criticised the long-standing development approach that assumes rivers, mountains and natural systems can be re-engineered without consequences. She cited dissolved oxygen readings in the Yamuna, saying the level declines from around six at the river’s entry point into Delhi to zero by the time it reaches ISBT. According to her, this is scientific evidence of the river’s ecological collapse. Narain also argued that Delhi’s air pollution cannot be addressed only by adding electric vehicles. The more fundamental solution, she said, is to rebuild efficient and accessible public transport so that people do not have to depend on private vehicles. “The one thing that we do not need more of is more reports and more incremental steps to fix what is today an existential crisis,” she said. The remarks came during the inaugural session of ICSE 2026, organised by the Mobius Foundation under the theme, “Sustainability Education for Transformative Action.”

India: नए भारत को देश के चार जिलों के गांव क्या सिखा रहे हैं?

देश में हर दिन 1.7 लाख टन कचरा पैदा होता है सेंट्रल पॉल्यूशन कंट्रोल बोर्ड के अनुसार, देश में हर दिन 1.7 लाख टन कचरा पैदा होता है। इसमें से 22% कचरा लैंडफिल में जाता है और 17% का कोई हिसाब-किताब नहीं है। एक्टिविस्ट ग्रुप्स और एक्सपर्ट्स का कहना है कि ग्रामीण कचरे का डेटा तो बिल्कुल भी नहीं गिना जाता है। द हिंदू की एक रिपोर्ट में नई दिल्ली स्थित सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (CSE) में सॉलिड वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट और सर्कुलर इकोनॉमी के प्रोग्राम मैनेजर सिद्धार्थ सिंह ने कहा, 'ग्रामीण इलाकों के लिए कचरे का डेटा मौजूद ही नहीं है।'

What two dis­tricts can teach us about deal­ing with rural waste

Per the UNEP, the most expens­ive step in the waste man­age­ment chain is col­lec­tion: in the form of crew wages, vehicle fuel and main­ten­ance, insur­ance, and other indir­ect costs. A recent CSE report on plastic waste man­age­ment, which Mr. Singh co-authored, also found that primary col­lec­tion and trans­port­a­tion account for the bulk of costs in Indian cit­ies.

Bangladesh wants Nepal’s power, but India holds the key

Every monsoon, swollen rivers give Nepal a surge of hydropower, creating a surplus. Some of that could supplement downstream neighbour Bangladesh’s fossil-fuel-dependent electricity supply. But as the two countries do not share a border, electricity trade between them must pass through India’s transmission network, which comes with some conditions. Since 2024, Nepal has been exporting 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Bangladesh through India’s transmission network every June to November. It wants to export 20 MW more. But this June, the Indian power trading company which manages cross-border grid operations with Bangladesh declined the request, Nepali government officials told the Kathmandu Post. The company, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited, reportedly cited capacity constraints on the India-Bangladesh transmission line. In July, India held energy cooperation talks with Nepal. While there was development on bilateral energy coordination, there was no resolution on the 20 MW issue. That amount is minuscule compared to the size of the three countries’ electricity grids, which have a combined total installed capacity of around 586 GW. But energy experts, officials and power-sector analysts in those countries told Dialogue Earth the 20 MW impasse is more nuanced than it appears. There are technical, procedural and political factors at play, they note. While Bangladeshi and Nepali experts point to unused capacity on the India-Bangladesh transmission link, Indian experts say there could be a genuine capacity limitation on the line. In the absence of a regional body and trade mechanism dedicated to energy, procedural lapses and politics also have major roles to play, they note. Strained India-Bangladesh relations since Bangladesh’s 2024 change of government may also be involved. Nepal’s growing role as a hydropower exporter must also be viewed together with its vulnerabilities. On 26 August, a flash flood swept through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems, killing at least 900 people. The flood also damaged 12 hydropower plants and critical transmission infrastructure, according to India Today. A Nepal energy ministry official told Bloomberg nearly 360 MW of hydropower capacity has been damaged, and that the country may seek electricity from India to bridge shortages. It is too early to know how the catastrophe will affect Nepal’s energy exports. Why Bangladesh wants Nepal’s hydropower Nepal and Bangladesh have complementary electricity needs. The summer monsoon gives Nepal surplus hydropower, which Bangladesh can use to diversify its energy sources. In the dry winter, these roles reverse somewhat – Nepal faces shortages while Bangladesh’s demand dips – making cross-border trade beneficial in both directions over the year. In 2025-2026, Nepal’s total installed capacity reached 4.1 GW, but monthly peak domestic demand stood at only around 2.5 GW, according to the Nepal Energy Authority. Electricity exports bring total demand up to about 3.2 GW. Bangladesh has 32 GW of installed power generation capacity, 98% of which is dependent on fossil fuels, according to energy think-tank Ember. The country wants to diversify sources to meet its current demand. Bangladesh also aims to cover 20% of its electricity needs from non-imported renewables by 2030. Energy trade between Nepal and Bangladesh therefore makes “economic sense”, says Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury, director of the Centre for Energy Research at United International University in Dhaka. “Hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan could provide Bangladesh with a cheaper source of electricity than many of the country’s existing generation sources,” says Shafiqul Alam, lead analyst for Bangladesh energy at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Ideally, electricity trade should work both ways,” Chowdhury says. But expanding such trade is “a political decision”, he notes. “The volume is small, but it is important because it marks the beginning of cross-border electricity cooperation.” Cross-border electricity trade helps Bangladesh primarily by shielding it from geopolitical disruptions to energy supplies, volatility in international fuel prices and diversification, experts say. After all, the additional 20 MW will not help Bangladesh meet its 20% renewables target. There is no plan to include imports within what is a domestic generation target, says Aninda Islam Amit, Bangladesh’s state minister for power, energy and mineral resources. He expects the country’s private sector to “take the lead” on renewables as there are “incentives for private entrepreneurs”, he tells Dialogue Earth. For Nepal, the energy trade is part of a much larger ambition. During the July energy talks, it agreed to increase its export capacity as India ups its import capacity. Nepali energy minister Birajbhakta Shrestha tells Dialogue Earth that the deal is another step towards fulfilling the country’s agreement to export 10 GW of electricity to India, signed in 2024. A Nepali energy ministry official, requesting anonymity, says the immediate 20-MW issue could be resolved through trilateral discussions between Nepal, India and Bangladesh. India holds the missing link The 40 MW Nepal currently exports to Bangladesh is transported by the Baharampur-Bheramara high-voltage DC interconnection from east India, where it arrives on a transmission line from southern Nepal. The Baharampur-Bheramara link between India and Bangladesh has a transfer capacity of 1 GW. The country typically receives around 920-930 MW through the link, leaving some unused transfer capacity, said a Bangladesh Power Division official speaking on condition of anonymity. Nepal has also been considering alternatives. “If power cannot be exported via the Baharampur-Bheramara line, there is option for Nepal to export the additional 20 MW through other Indian transmission lines connected to Bangladesh,” says Manoj Silwal, former deputy managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority. Apart from the Baharampur-Bheramara link, Bangladesh also imports nearly 1.7 GW from India: 160 MW through the Surajmaninagar to Comilla interconnection, and 1.5 GW from Godda to Rohanpur, the latter operated by Adani Power. However, transporting the 20 MW via existing corridors may not be feasible for a few reasons, says Nikit Abhyankar, an energy efficiency expert at the University of California, Berkeley. It is possible that these corridors are fully utilised. Additionally, the average amount of electricity a transmission line carries is not necessarily the capacity that is safely available, Abhyankar notes. At times of peak demand, power flows can be much higher, and some capacity must be reserved to manage unexpected failures elsewhere in the system. “I would be very surprised if they are actually going to operate a 1,000 MW line at 1,000 MW capacity,” Abhyankar says. A line may also be unable to deliver its rated amount of electricity due to losses from transfers. In a high-voltage DC connection, such as Baharampur-Bheramara, some electricity is lost when power is converted from AC to DC, as it travels along the transmission line, and when converted back to AC at the receiving end. Abhyankar estimates that roughly 40-50 MW could be lost on a 1-GW line. The Baharampur-Bheramara corridor is also loaded with India’s own exports to Bangladesh. India’s Central Electricity Authority “doesn’t want to run the line close to its thermal limit … on a line that also carries India’s own bilateral exports”, notes Binit Das, deputy programme manager for renewable energy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). For the India-Bangladesh link, battery storage could potentially help if the line has spare capacity during periods of lower demand, Abhyankar adds. But feasibility depends on how much the power flow on the interconnection varies over the day.

How hydropower decline is reinforcing coal’s role as India’s flexible power source

Renewables accounted for a record one-fifth of Indian power generation in July — even as thermal energy led with more than 65% of the 182.52 billion units generated. The outlier was hydropower generation which declined 10.75% year-on-year during the first quarter of FY27 as reservoirs hit their lowest levels since 2023 amid erratic weather conditions. Government data now highlights a strange contrast: surging green capacity is sharing space with persistent coal generation as the 500 GW renewable energy target for 2030 looms. Coal has remained the backbone of energy supply in India — accounting for nearly 79% of the total energy supplied domestically in FY25. Production grew by 4.98% during the same year to reach 1047.52 million tonnes. Non-coking coal retained a dominant share at around 93.65% of the total production during FY25. The situation has not changed significantly in the ensuing months. CEA data for July 2026 shows thermal energy generated 119.36 billion units in July. According to government data cited by Reuters, coal-fired power generation surged to a near-three-year high in June amid increased cooling demand during an ​extended heatwave and below-average monsoon rainfall. The publication calculated daily data from Grid India to report that coal-fired power generation had risen about 14% year-on-year to ​120.20 billion kWh in June — the highest since November 2023. At the same time, data from the government’s Report of the Expert Committee on Energy Statistics contended in July that the “estimated potential for generation of energy from renewable resources reached 4,704 GW by the end of March 2025”. Solar led the list with a staggering growth from 748,990 MW in FY24 to 33,43,378 MW during FY25. Wind Power now stands at 11,63,856 MW while large hydro is at 1,33,410 MW. Coal flexibility as the way forward? India introduced a ‘flexible coal’ policy in January 2023 — mandating all relevant power plants to modify their equipment to run at a minimum technical load of 40% as per a phased plan. The Centre for Science and Environment also contended in a newly released report that coal flexibilisation can help India create an additional 18GW to 34 GW of renewable energy space and potentially to reduce power sector emissions by up to 8.37%. “Enhancing the flexibility of the existing coal fleet can play a role in balancing the system and enabling greater integration of renewable energy. We are not talking about renewable vs coal here. We are talking about renewable and coal, and about how to integrate the two. The task is not to replace coal, but to displace it,” CSE director general Sunita Narain argued during a recent event. But the plan has reportedly been put on hold as India logged its fifth-driest June since 1901 amid strong El Nino conditions. Searing heat has led to a surge in power consumption and correspondingly, a growing demand for coal power. Renewable energy sources remain still somewhat curtailed by a lack of battery storage despite the overall increase in generation. Documents viewed by Reuters indicated recently that the plan had been “pushed back by a year” as regulators

Cookstoves and Carbon Credits: Inside Bengaluru's Carbon Market Boom

In parts of Karnataka, "improved" cookstove projects were rolled out as climate interventions designed to reduce emissions and generate carbon credits. On paper, they promised cleaner cooking and measurable climate benefits. On the ground, the story was far less convincing. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study found that households were often made to pay for the cookstoves themselves. Many were unaware that these projects were part of carbon credit schemes—and no financial returns reached them. More concerning, some households that already had LPG connections didn’t even use the stoves. In 2022, Jyoti Shital Chavan from Yarnaal village in Belagavi district was introduced to "improved" cookstoves at a meeting organized by Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project, a charitable trust supporting rural communities in Karnataka through micro-credit and infrastructure initiatives. Manufactured by Mumbai-based Greenway Grameen Infra, the stoves were promoted as a way to reduce fuelwood use and cut COP2 emissions. Before this, Chavan already used both an LPG connection and a traditional mud chulha. Under another cookstove project implemented by EKI Energy Services, Shakarya Kalacharantimath from Belagavi's Bidi village received an "improved" cookstove from her daughter three years ago. But she uses it only once a month, continuing to rely mainly on traditional mud chulha and LPG cylinders. “An improved cookstove with a single burner is not practical for a large family,” she told Down to Earth-CSE. Trishant Dev, Deputy Programme Manager at CSE, explains, “What we found was that the community was absolutely not aware of carbon credits... and no money was coming their way.” “Many of them were also not using the cookstoves… in a way, you were encouraging communities to shift back to wood-based cooking,” he adds. India’s Carbon Market Moment India is rapidly positioning itself as a global hub for carbon markets. According to Grand View Research, the carbon credit market in the country generated a revenue of roughly $4 million in 2023. It is projected to cross $49 million by 2030. There are two kinds of carbon credit markets—compliance market and voluntary market. Compliance markets are formed and regulated by regional, national, or international government bodies. They set up legal targets for regulated entities (industries/sectors) to cap emissions. Voluntary markets are national and international markets, where individuals and companies choose to offset emissions by buying credits from projects like biogas plants and improved cookstoves that reduce emissions. As of now, India only functions in voluntary carbon markets. The government is now stepping in with the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) with an aim to formalize the sector and align it with India’s climate goals. But even as the market expands, fundamental questions remain about what it actually delivers.

Warangal’s urban heat index doubled in two decades, finds study

Warangal findings have a striking parallel in Hyderabad. The Centre for Science and Environment’s Urban Heat Stress Tracker Hyderabad, published in 2024, found that Hyderabad’s built-up area more than doubled between 2003 and 2023. Built-up land increased from 298.3 sq km, or 20.6% of the city’s geographical area, in 2003 to 636.58 sq km, or 44%, in 2023.

News from the world of Education: August 28, 2026

Conference on Sustainability Education Mobius Foundation will host the eighth International Conference on Sustainability Education in New Delhi on September 2 and 3, at the India Habitat Centre. Speakers include Sunita Narain, Vibha Dhawan, Kartikeya Sarabhai, Ashok Khosla, Ravi Singh, Erach Bharucha, and international experts from Hungary and Denmark. To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/mrrv9zua

Mumbai’s ‘moderate’ air can hide toxic hotspots; experts push for hyperlocal pollution rules

MUMBAI: A city-wide air quality reading may be giving Mumbaikars a false sense of comfort. Pollution levels can vary dramatically between neighbourhoods, with some parts of Mumbai recording nearly three times the seasonal PM2.5 levels of others, pointing to a growing need for pollution controls that target specific hotspots and sources rather than relying largely on municipal boundaries. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis of real-time CPCB data through Jan 31, 2025 found Deonar had Mumbai’s highest seasonal average PM2.5 concentration at 80 micrograms per cubic metre, followed by Shivaji Nagar at 76 and Malad West at 75. Borivali East, in contrast, recorded 29 µg/m³ — about 2.8 times lower than Deonar. “The law supports what needs to be done; application & implementation need to catch-up,” said Justin Bharucha, managing partner, Bharucha & Partners, whose firm prepared the analysis. “We need an AQI data spine with localised data sourcing & dissemination for the MMR. A single AQI number is an effective disservice to the purpose of helping citizens assess and address our quality of air crisis.” The contrast is significant because a single Mumbai or MMR AQI can smooth out such local variations. For residents living close to an industrial cluster, landfill, congested traffic corridor or construction zone, the city-wide number may bear little resemblance to the air they actually breathe. One MMR, many pollution profiles The problem becomes more complicated outside Mumbai's municipal limits. A snapshot cited in the analysis showed Thane, Bhiwandi, Dombivli, Mira Bhayandar and Mumbai at 52 on the US AQI scale at 7.30am on Aug 21, 2026, while Kalyan and Ulhasnagar were at 55, Tarkhad 53, Virar 54 and Badlapur 56 — all in the "Moderate" category. But such town-wide figures can potentially mask spikes around individual industrial clusters. The analysis specifically points to the TTC and Taloja clusters, while cautioning that this is an inference and that a current 2026 station-level breakdown for these clusters was not located.

Pilgrimage or pollution? The waste crisis of Indian faith

According to a new report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India produces about 19,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Of this, 62 percent of plastic is used for packaging, compared to the global average of approximately 40 percent. Plastic packaging consumption is growing at an annual rate of 8 to 9 percent. If this trend continues, plastic packaging consumption, which stood at 1.1 crore tonnes in 2022, could rise to about 2 crore tonnes by 2030.

CSE Report Flags Rigid Power Contracts as Risk to Energy Transition

A new Centre for Science and Environment report warns that outdated thermal power contracts are hindering India's energy transition. These long-term agreements force consumers to pay fixed costs for coal plants even as solar energy use rises, creating financial inefficiencies. The findings highlight the urgent need for contract reforms to improve grid flexibility. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released a report on August 25, 2026, highlighting that outdated power purchase agreements (PPAs) are creating significant challenges for India's transition to renewable energy. These long-term contracts, which define the terms of electricity supply between generators and distribution companies, were created during a period of frequent power shortages and have not kept pace with the current shift toward solar and wind energy. The core issue identified is the rigidity of these contracts. Traditionally, thermal power plants were designed to provide 'baseload' power, meaning they ran constantly to meet a steady demand. Because of this, contracts included fixed payments to ensure the plants could recover their costs. However, as solar energy capacity has grown, the energy grid now requires power plants that can ramp up or down quickly depending on sunlight levels. When solar generation is high, coal plants are often asked to reduce their output. Despite running for fewer hours, these plants are still entitled to their full fixed payments under the old contract terms. This mismatch creates a financial burden. Consumers effectively end up paying higher prices because the fixed costs of coal capacity remain high, even when the actual electricity generated is lower. The CSE report examined data from eight states and found that 6.1 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity is tied to long-term contracts that extend to 2040 and beyond. This 'generational lock-in' restricts the ability of the power sector to adopt more flexible and potentially cheaper energy sources. Distribution companies (DISCOMs), which are responsible for purchasing and distributing power, continue to face financial pressure. These rigid contractual obligations limit their financial flexibility and can prevent them from optimizing their power procurement costs. The report suggests that because many of these assets and distribution companies are government-owned, there is an opportunity to negotiate changes to these agreements rather than relying on legal battles or waiting for the contracts to expire. The CSE study recommends updating the standard power purchase agreement model to incorporate requirements for operational flexibility and performance during different energy demand cycles. It also calls for state-level reviews to ensure that procurement portfolios are aligned with a modern, low-carbon energy system. For investors and energy stakeholders, the key monitorable will be potential regulatory changes or state-level policy updates that could trigger the renegotiation of these legacy contracts. Such reforms would be essential to reducing system-wide costs and improving the financial health of the power distribution sector.

Consultant for Sustainable Industrialization Programme, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India’s leading public policy research institution, is looking for candidates for its sustainable industrialization team. The team works on various agendas for improved industrialization like Industrial air pollution, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy, environmental governance and decarbonisation to develop industrial roadmaps and assist the stakeholders in the implementation of various developed strategies. The team is looking to expand their capacity and thus looking for candidates to join their group.

India must integrate renewable and coal-based power sectors for successful energy transition: CSE study

The study, Flex to Fix: Deciphering India's Coal Flexibilisation Challenge for RE Integration, said coal power flexibilisation could help create an additional 18-34 GW of renewable energy space and reduce power-sector emissions by 7.66-8.37 per cent, equivalent to 92-101 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. CSE released the report at a national dialogue on coal flexibilisation and reforms in thermal power purchase agreements (PPAs), attended by representatives of the Central Electricity Authority, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, GRID-India, BHEL, NTPC and Torrent Power, besides experts from think tanks, civil society and academia. CSE Director General Sunita Narain said India's power sector must work towards greater grid flexibility as renewable energy expands. "We are not talking about renewable vs coal here. We are talking about renewable and coal, and about how to integrate the two. The task is not to replace coal, but to displace it," she said. The study noted that India reached 50 per cent non-fossil-based installed power capacity in November 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target. However, rapid growth in renewable energy, particularly solar power, has altered the demandsupply balance and increased operational stress on conventional generation.

Scorching summers intensify caste barriers to water in India's Bundelkhand

Carrying three empty plastic buckets, she walked several hundred metres to the nearest handpump in her village in Jalaun district, part of the drought-prone Bundelkhand region of northern India. Temperatures in parts of the region were already climbing above 40°C, reports the BBC. Mamta said taps installed under a government drinking water scheme had remained dry for two years, leaving around 1,000 villagers dependent on a small number of handpumps. It took her hours to collect enough water for her family of 11 and their livestock. But the heat was not her only challenge. Mamta is from the Valmiki community, a Dalit group that was historically considered "untouchable" under India's caste system and continues to face discrimination. She said she waited for members of dominant castes to finish using the handpump before collecting water herself. "If they are standing there, we cannot fill water. We have to wait until they leave," she said. She also said some upper-caste residents poured water over the pump afterwards to "cleanse" it, adding that the practice had continued for decades. Bundelkhand Bundelkhand, a semi-arid region covering districts in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, is known for severe water scarcity. The region experienced several major droughts between 2002 and 2016. Its rocky plateau has limited capacity to retain groundwater, while unpredictable rainfall and rising temperatures have made water access increasingly uncertain despite government and community conservation efforts. A study examining more than a century of weather records found temperatures had increased across almost the entire region. In recent summers, temperatures in parts of Bundelkhand have approached 48°C. Residents and researchers say the worsening heat and water stress are intensifying long-standing caste divisions. As more families compete for increasingly scarce water, Dalits, who have historically faced restrictions in accessing water, are encountering such inequalities more frequently. "Conflict over water is not new," said Mitashi Singh of the Centre for Science and Environment. What is changing, she said, is how hotter summers are making water scarcer and aggravating existing tensions. Local officials reject allegations of water shortages and caste discrimination at public water sources. Dominant-caste residents interviewed by the BBC also denied discriminating against others, though they acknowledged growing pressure on water supplies. Ram Gopal Singh, in his 50s, pointed to several abandoned village wells, saying they had been dry for nearly 20 years. Other water sources had either dried up or become polluted, while unreliable tap connections had driven more families towards handpumps, he added. According to Singh, everyone tries to collect water during cooler morning hours, resulting in disputes over turns and the amount each family could collect. But he denied that caste is a factor in these disputes. Dalit residents, however, described a different situation. They said there is no formal queue at the handpumps and that families instead try to collect water at different times to avoid confrontations. Mamta said she usually goes very early in the morning or late in the afternoon because she fears being targeted. About 50km away in Shahjahanpur, Shiv said members of his community similarly avoid approaching a handpump while dominant-caste families are using it. "No matter how hot it is, even if we have to wait for hours for one bucket of drinking water, we wait because we do not have a choice." His mother, Parmi Devi, alleged that she was assaulted three years ago after an argument with a dominant-caste resident at a village handpump. Devi filed a police complaint, but no arrests have been made. The Dalit Dignity and Justice Centre, a non-profit in Uttar Pradesh, said police registered 113 cases under India's law against caste-based atrocities in the area in 2025. The organisation said most complaints it tracked during May and June involved water, though it has not published a detailed breakdown. District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Pandey's office rejected the allegations, saying there is no instance of caste discrimination over water access. Efforts to address water shortages include the government's Jal Jeevan Mission, restoration of ponds and groundwater recharge initiatives. Traditional water bodies have also been revived, while women-led Jal Saheli groups monitor supplies and promote conservation. Researcher Mukul Sharma said increasing water supplies alone will not resolve the problem. Climate change, he said, is "not the origin of these injustices, but a threat multiplier." Unless caste inequalities over water access are addressed, he said, more water will not solve the problem.

India’s cities aren’t just fighting the rain. They’re fighting their own infrastructure

The Centre for Science and Environment has previously documented how Chennai's natural drainage network was damaged by encroachment and construction. Its analysis noted that Pallikaranai, once around 5,000 hectares, had shrunk to roughly 600 hectares around 2010-11. The consequences are predictable. When wetlands, lakes and channels disappear, the water does not disappear with them. It simply has fewer places to go. A 2026 study on Pallikaranai similarly found that rapid urbanisation, expansion of impervious surfaces and wetland encroachment have altered the marsh's hydrological functions and increased flood risks.