Challenges in the Urban and Peri-urban Transition Zones and Strategies for Sustainable Cities: Experiences from Selected Cities

Abstract

Like many other countries, India has experienced rapid urban growth in recent decades. This paper focuses on the changes taking place in the peri-urban area of India where urban development is occurring both within and around the indigenous villages. In India, most people move to the urban areas due to factors such as poverty, environmental degradation, food insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure and services in the rural areas. The number of towns has increased by 2,774 since the last census in 2001 and the level of urbanisation has increased from 28 % in the 2001 census to 31 % in the 2011 census while the proportion of rural population declined from 72 to 69 %. The urban–rural ratio for India in 2011 is around 45 meaning that for every 100 ruralites there are 45 urbanites in India. This increased level of urbanisation has changed the environment of the peri-urban areas of India. Urbanisation poses challenges in relation to the water, agriculture and energy in peri–urban areas of the cities of India. In the post-liberalisation period a process of change has been induced by the growth of the information technology (IT) sector leading to tremendous expansion of cities. With the expansion of these cities, changes have occurred that the surrounding villages witnessed; massive real estate development, a decrease in agricultural land and a year round shortage of water. Villages being absorbed into the cities has led to increasing competition over scarce water through industry, domestic use, farm houses and recreation parks. Urbanisation brings major changes in demand for agricultural products both from increases in urban populations and from changes in their diets and demands.