Mr. Shashank Deora will present his APS as per the detail below:

Date: 27th February 2024 (Tuesday)

Time:  04:00 pm to 05:30 pm

Venue: CTARA Conference Room - 2

Title: Infrastructuring of a watershed: Urbanisation, material transformations, and spatial imaginaries around a lake in Mumbai

Guide: Prof. Pankaj Sekhsaria 

RPC Members: Prof. N C Narayanan, Prof. Himanshu Burte

Abstract:

The rapid urbanisation in India around water bodies such as lakes and ponds has significant spatial outcomes. It has been associated with the environmental degradation of these water bodies, followed by the efforts to revive them. These revival efforts exclude some sections of the population from accessing the water bodies while also, at times, disconnecting these water bodies from their catchments. Another significant phenomenon adding complexity to this urbanisation is the changing spatial imaginaries associated with these water bodies and their surroundings. Studying the emergence of water bodies and their surroundings through urbanisation can help improve the understanding of these complexities. For this, I study a watershed in Mumbai – Powai Lake and its catchment – through its urbanisation. Studying the emergence of a watershed can generate crucial insights, given the policy emphasis on managing and protecting water bodies at the scale of their watersheds through urbanisation. I study the emergence of the watershed of Powai Lake by investigating its infrastructuring – taking place through diverse social, political, and technological infrastructural work. A dominant spatial imaginary associated with this watershed is that of a fusion of pristine nature and modern world-class urban. I study the significant infrastructural work that has contributed to constructing and maintaining this spatial imaginary starting from the mid-nineteenth century. Through my analysis, I highlight the specific material configurations of the watershed that this infrastructural work facilitates or precludes. The promise associated with these material configurations – the luxury residential and commercial urban constructions in the lake’s catchment and the efforts to beautify the lake and the lakefront – reinforces the dominant imaginary around the watershed. However, this infrastructural work around the watershed is also associated with a rising ecological degradation and a growing marginalisation of the non-human and some human actors.