#Streets4People: Embracing Sustainable Urban Mobility Pune on World Car-Free Day, 2024

In celebration of World Car-Free Day, we held a vibrant event, near Mandai, in the core city of Pune. The initiative aimed to promote the concept of car-free cities and engage citizens in meaningful discussions about sustainable urban mobility. The event attracted a diverse group of participants, including local residents, students, and visitors to the historic core city of Pune. Attendees had the opportunity to share their perspectives on the importance of reducing car dependency and enhancing public transportation, cycling, and walking infrastructure.

Proper Road Design Can Save Trees on Ganeshkhind Road

Impact of Road Widening

As traffic levels soar in the city, roads get congested, leading to demands from various quarters - the traffic police, elected representatives, PMC planners and engineers and even the public - for road widening. Road widening is routinely marked in the Development Plan, in anticipation of growth in traffic. Eventually budgets are allocated and once land acquisition procedures (both time-consuming and very expensive) are completed, the widening of the road commences. There are two fundamental issues with this approach though - without any restraint on vehicle growth, soon the widened road also gets congested. And in the process of road widening, trees - often old and big trees along the roadside - get cut in the hundreds. In fact the road department is responsible for most tree cutting in the city. More traffic and less trees is a double recipe for increasing pollution, GHG emissions and heat island effects.

Transport experts have long dismissed road widening as a way to solve congestion. Instead they recommend promoting walking, cycling and public transport and vehicle restraint measures.

Pledge to opt for eco-friendly cremation and leave behind a greener legacy: Green Farewell Campaign

When we think of death, one of our concerns is whether we leave our future generation well cared for. While we try to secure material resources, do we give a thought to their health as well as the environment they have to live in? The world is becoming increasingly polluted and climate change threatens our very survival. As we look towards building a brighter future for next generations, we must thoughtfully re-examine some of our old practices and fully understand their impacts on our society and planet. One practice ripe for change is the most common method of cremation – wood cremation.

Stakeholder consultation on Road Safety and Speed Management in Mumbai

In collaboration with Mumbai Mobility Forum (MMF), Parisar organised a stakeholders consultation on 24th August, 2024 inviting various CSOs in Mumbai to take part in discussions on road safety in Mumbai and Maharashtra at large. The opening remarks were delivered by Sandeep Gaikwad from Parisar who emphasised on the importance of preparing the Urban Speed Management Guidelines for Maharashtra, and Ashok Datar who shared the work of Mumbai Mobility Forum on sustainable transportation and road safety in Mumbai. 

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About Parisar & history

Parisar is a civil society organization working on lobbying and advocacy for sustainable development. Since its formation in the early 1980s, Parisar has worked in a diverse set of fields such as preservation of heritage, protection of urban bio-diversity, and sustainable agriculture. Since about the turn of the 21st century, its work focuses mainly on sustainable urban transport, since it recognizes that unsustainable transport policies and systems are the foremost threat to urban environment and quality of life. 

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What's new

Pedal Power: Pune Celebrates World Bicycle Day 2024!

In celebration of World Bicycle Day, organisations across Pune, including Parisar, organised a series of activities to promote cycling, sustainability, and community engagement, during the first week of June. Here’s a recap:

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Interesting reads

Unified DCPR is outrageous: It will destroy liveability of Pune City

India is on path toward rapid urban population growth leading to unmanaged metropolitan cities and other urban areas. Urban local bodies are unable to cope up with the pressure of urbanisation and unplanned urban growth problems continue to remain in all cities. If we have to define Indian urban landscape, it is a “bizarre ad-hoc juxtaposition of suburbs, gaothans, hills, slums and shanty areas, clutters of guthewari structures, streets with all activities, congested streets full of two wheelers and cars - which have turned into densely populated squalid habitats – in between surrounded by glittering buildings and gated communities.”

Floor Space Index (FSI): A Detrimental Provision in the UDCPR

The Government of Maharashtra recently notified the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR) which are going to have a very big impact on cities. The UDCPR is being implemented in cities like Pune without assessing its impact. The current trajectory of urban development, with the focus on real estate development, is the major reason for non-defined urban form and bad urban design followed in Indian cities. 

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Plastic Free July and its relevance throughout the year


Landfills are representative of our misplaced development priorities.
Photographer: Jonathan Torgovnik/AJWS | Organisation: SWaCH Pune Seva Sahakari Sanstha.

“Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution”. The movement was started in 2011 by “Rebecca Prince-Ruiz (the founder of the Plastic Free Foundation) and a small team in local government in Western Australia, and is now one of the most influential environmental campaigns in the world.” This excerpt from the Plastic Free July website shows that globally, people acknowledge the plastic crisis as well as want to be part of the solution. And why not, as the age we live in is being called the plasticene1 and plastic pollution has become all pervasive. Plastic is found on top of the highest mountains2, deepest of trenches in the ocean3, while plastic (microplastic and nano plastic) has been found even inside human placenta4, blood5, lungs6 and testicles7. Scientists have discovered that micro- and nanoplastics exist in every environmental compartment — from freshwater to soil and air — and in thousands of species, including humans8. A 2019 WWF report suggests that we consume an average of 5g or a debit card size of plastic a week. Toxics Link in 2024, found microplastic in all 10 samples of salt and 5 samples of sugar they studied in the Indian market. Similar studies in the past have shown tap water, bottled water and other food and beverages to contain microplastic. Microplastic has become part of our daily food and drinks.

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Parisar in news

Parisar felicitated as the best NGO in the field of Road Safety in Maharashtra

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) celebrated Road Safety week from 11 to 17 January 2023 across India.

Parisar was felicitated as a best NGO working in the field of road safety in Maharashtra. This award ceremony was held in Mumbai on 11th January 2023.

The event was organised by the Transport Department, Maharashtra State and Mr. Sandeep Gaikwad (Senior Program Associate) represented Parisar to receive the award.

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वाहतूक कोंडी एक गंभीर समस्या!

The following article in Marathi highlights the issue of traffic congestions in the cities across India. It talks about the reasons, impacts, issues of traffic congestion and solutions to resolve it. 

The shortened version of this article was published in Sakal media on 10th October 2022.

वाहतूक कोंडी एक गंभीर समस्या!

भारतातील सर्वच शहरे विशेषत पुणे, मुंबई, दिल्ली, चेन्नई, बंगळूर वाहतूक कोंडीने त्रस्त आहेत. वाहतूक कोंडी ही समस्या दिवसेंदिवस वाढत उग्र रूप धारण करीत आहे. सण-समारंभ, मंत्री महोदयांचे मोर्चे-दौरे, यात अधिक भर घालतात. काही दिवसांपूर्वी पुणे शहरात खुद्द आमदारांना आपल्या शासकीय वाहनातून उतरून वाहतूक सुरळीत करून वाहतूक कोंडीतून स्वतःची सुटका करून घ्यावी लागली. कोणत्याही शहरात पोलिस प्रमुखाची नव्याने नेमणूक झाल्यास नागरिक, संघटना, पत्रकार पोलिस प्रमुखास पहिला प्रश्न विचारतात तो म्हणजे वाहतूक समस्या सोडवण्यास काय उपाययोजना कराल?

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