Building @terrahelix_tech, herding @geopune. Interests include geospatial, climate, history and the environment.
Pune, India
Joined July 2009
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Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
Red or green, crackers are still crackers. They still pollute. Do you genuinely believe a country where nearly everything from food to consumer goods is routinely adulterated has the regulatory capacity to rigorously monitor firecracker emissions? Gimme a break.
Delhi is experiencing its worst pre-Diwali pollution period since 2019.
The graph below shows hourly PM2.5 concentrations in Delhi over the three days before Diwali, on Diwali and the three days after, compared across 2019–2026.
By 6 am on 6 November 2026, hourly PM2.5 concentrations had reached 300 µg/m3, equivalent to five times India's 24-hour national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS).
On 5 November, the third day before Diwali, hourly PM2.5 concentrations reached 227 µg/m3, making it the second-highest pre-Diwali level in the comparison period.
Stubble burning is often blamed for Delhi's pollution, but government estimates attributed only 14% of Delhi's PM2.5 pollution to stubble burning on Nov 5. The remaining 86% came from other sources, including industries, vehicles, residential cooking and heating, power plants and other combustion activities.
Yet, GRAP imposes limited restrictions on several of these major year-round pollution sources.
It is time to look beyond the temporary Diwali and stubble-burning narrative and ask a more fundamental question: why do major sources of pollution continue to receive limited regulatory attention even as Delhi enters the festive season with such high pollution levels?
if you would like to track pollution here is the link ncap.energyandcleanair.org/
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
Indians are being sold municipal failure as upward mobility: buying purifiers for unsafe water & toxic air, private transport as public transit fails. As incomes rise & capitalists institutionalise civic failures, accountability will decline & cities will deteriorate further.
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
Have raised this issue countless times for many years. It feels like @PMCPune doesn't feel responsible for maintaining basic road signage and lane-markings?
Traffic, parking, directions signs missing, worn-out, broken all over the city. On the other hand, signage for elected representatives are promptly installed. And not to mention the 1000s of illegal 'signage' (banners, etc.).
Lane markings missing as well all over the city, even on key roads.
Just look at the neighboring PCMC - they do a significantly better job in this area.
cc @navalMH @MDNagpure @SidShirole
Maybe don’t do this?
——
Courtesy Gemini:
A global look at bike-friendly subways:
Copenhagen: Fully integrated with station wheel tracks and parking garages.
Amsterdam: Allowed off-peak with a bike ticket; foldables are always free.
Berlin: Permitted on U-Bahn and S-Bahn with an extra bike ticket.
Vienna: Free of charge during designated off-peak hours and all day Sunday.
Taipei: Allowed at specific stations during weekends and off-peak weekdays.
Tokyo: Foldable bikes only, and they must be inside a specialized carry bag.
Sydney: Allowed for free across the network if they do not block doors.
Mumbai: Permitted off-peak on Lines 2A and 7, plus all day Sunday.
Montreal: Allowed off-peak on weekdays and all day on weekends.
Seattle: Features dedicated onboard bicycle hooks inside light rail cars.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
PMRDA seeks land for 8 parking lots near Metro stations timesofindia.indiatimes.com/… #PuneMetro
This metro line (Line-3) planning and execution started in 2017... nearly a decade back! Wondering why is @OfficialPMRDA thinking of such basics now?🤔
We’re in for some interesting days ahead
unn.ua/en/news/russian-tanke…
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
🚨 Gen Z is set to become India's largest voting bloc by 2029, surpassing Millennials.
In the glory days of the internet, long before the social media plague, we had forums. Forums had subforums, often grouped by topic. Subforums had threads. The forums had rules, which were enforced (sometimes overzealously) by Admins and Moderators. Things like trolling and flaming got you warnings, bans and perma-bans.
Given the anonymity of the internet, it seemed like a good way to keep the jerks and assholes in check. Whenever I see the blatant racism, and general rudeness on social media, I miss those days greatly.
reddit.com/r/RedditAlternati…
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
#BREAKING: Bombay High Court slams BJP leaders for criticising a videoclip wherein Bollywood Actor Dia Mirza had appealed citizens to avoid bursting firecrackers on public streets as ordered by the High Court.
She was roped in to create awareness on the issue by the BMC, however, after the opposition by BJP leaders, the video was pulled down from the BMC's social media handle.
Bench of Justice Girish Kulkarni & Justice Dr Neela Gokhale said "they are disturbed by the stray comments made by some politicians" and reminded them that "India is a Secular country."
Judges have ordered the BMC to restore the deleted video
@mybmc @deespeak
#BMC #BombayHighCourt
Every morning there’s a traffic snarl at this Chowk in Bavdhan. There’s a signal here but it doesn’t help much. The snarl is caused primarily due to two reasons:
1. Traffic narrows from a 3-lane road into a 1-lane funnel, where people coming in from the left are also joining wildly nilly, so actual throughput through the signal is barely a trickle.
2. No land acquisition for 20 years for the road going towards the service road, leading to traffic being backed up towards the signal.
Frankly, it’s stuff like this that causes Pune to be as congested as it is. We don’t need grandstand projects. Get the basics right and half of the problems will take care of themselves.
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
El Nino years see high intensity 24hrs rain in Pune in november
Among top 10 highest 24hrs rain event in November, 7 occured during El Nino year.
This 7 events are
95mm (2015)
93.8mm (2009)
75.4mm (1997)
52.3 (2019)
42.6mm (2009)
41.1mm (2026)
37mm (2009)
data: IMD #punerains
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
This is awful!! Separate elavators for domestic staff/labourers/cleaners/food delivery persons and also separate cups and utensils for domestic help - only in India, and the reason is obvious 🙁
Chinmay Shaligram retweeted
Still a long way out, but Landsat 10 is coming with an expected launch of 2031 - NASA and USGS plan 26 spectral bands at 10-60 m for the next chapter of the Landsat record!
This official graphic shows how the band stack grows compared to Landsat 8 & 9. Heritage bands stay for continuity, Sentinel-2 comparable bands are added, and new ones are built for emerging uses like snow cover and ice melt, crop water use and harmful algal blooms. Under the hood there is also a new reference system (WRS-3) with 265 orbits instead of 233, and an 18-day minimum revisit.
𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞: science.nasa.gov/mission/lan…
𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧 - janosovm.gumroad.com/l/qsxao…
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐩𝐬 - thenewscienceofmaps.com/
