Evaluation of environmental status reports of cities in Maharashtra
Cities in Maharashtra have been publishing Environmental Status Report (ESR) for last 12 years. These ESRs discuss the state of various natural resources and urban services and the environmental issues faced by respective cities. In order that the ESRs emerge as a more comprehensive document and play a better role in aligning developmental policies with environment, MPCB has proposed an indicator based framework. This framework of indicators follows the international practice with adaption to Indian cities. A quantitative approach is incorporated to allow an objective comparison between cities on their environmental performance as well as assess trends. The proposed framework is applied to ESRs of various cities in Maharashtra. Observation and experience of this application is enunciated in this report with specific recommendations. The report concludes with strategies on how to strengthen the quality and use of ESRs for action planning and provides guidance on how to prepare ESRs as well as way ahead.