How green is my country? Indians are asking the question but not doing enough. ... Debarshi Dasgupta Gurgaon has long been celebrated as a shining example of a vibrant, flourishing, 21st-century India. But last month it presented itself as a showcase of the grave environmental crisis that stares India in the face. Residents of this Delhi suburb, faced with crippling power and water shortages, disappearing green cover, and a permanent haze of cement dust hanging over the air thanks to the frenzied construction of malls and highrises, were compelled to petition the Supreme Court in May. They urged the court to save Gurgaon from "complete disaster" and put an end to its unplanned development, which had made their lives untenable "financially, environmentally and mentally". Growing middle-class concern about the fast deteriorating state of our environment is not restricted to Gurgaon alone, it's reflected in our nationwide survey too, where people rated environmental pollution second to inflation in the list of problems they face living in cities. This awareness has come not a moment too soon: air pollution from growing vehicular traffic, the indiscriminate cutting down of trees to build expressways and flyovers and the hazards from industrial effluents have sharply increased the incidence of a range of diseases, from asthma to cancer to mental retardation, caused by increasing levels of lead in the bloodstream. Exactly how much, you can learn from the statistics (see Numbing Numbers). Our rivers resemble giants sewers, infecting our water supply with deadly bacteria and microbes. Our rapidly dwindling forest cover threatens much of our fauna with extinction. And while the world debates the likely impact of climate change, people in India are already battling it: in some parts of the country, thousands have been forced to leave their homes because of persistent drought, while in other parts they are being displaced by rising sea levels. With booming economic growth has come accelerated environmental damage. As historian Ramachandra Guha, who has authored several seminal works on the environment, observes, "The green movement was strong in the '70s and '80s. But, in the '90s when economic liberalisation set in, green activists were sidelined as party-poopers. Now, belatedly, we're coming around to acknowledging that the greens may have had a point after all." A new sense of urgency about India's environmental degradation has compelled a number of ordinary individuals to make eco-conscious lifestyle changes. There is vocalist C.N. Mukherjee in Delhi's nondescript Krishna Nagar area, who harvests rainwater on his rooftop. Mumbai engineer Sudhir Badami has stopped using his private car for his daily commute to work and switched to public transport instead. Calcutta chartered accountant Subhas Datta has replaced his generator with a solar-powered back-up. In Ernakulam, urban planner A.R.S. Vadhyar has started growing organic food on his terrace, while Calcutta sociologist Aruna Seal prepares the family meals in a solar cooker. Delhi architect Sanjay Prakash has built himself a "green home" that reduces his energy consumption by a third. Thousands of middle-class householders all over the country have integrated green habits into their daily routines