Dharavi, MumbaiAfter Orangi, the largest slum in Asia is Dharavi in Mumbai. About one million people reside on just one square mile of space that was formerly a mangrove swamp. People became flocking to the area as the tanning and textile industries boomed and Dharavi's population density is now 11 times higher than that of the city that encompasses it.
A neighborhood smack in the heart of Mumbai, it retains the emotional and historical pull of a subcontinental Harlem -- a square-mile center of all things, geographically, psychologically, spiritually, National Geographic said in a recent article. Its location has also made it hot real estate in Mumbai, a city that epitomizes India's hopes of becoming an economic rival to China. |