Urban-centric systems and lifestyles contribute significantly to all the world’s most pressing problems, especially poverty, environmental degradation, and injustice. Urban migration, notably from rural areas, has been on the rise, with estimates that nearly 40% of the world’s urban expansion may be in slums, exacerbating economic disparities and unsanitary conditions. The United Nations projects that by 2050 more than two-thirds (estimated to be about 6.5 billion) of the world’s population will be living in cities.^[1] 

Threats Posed by Cities and Their Inhabitants

Given that currently over half (over 4.2 billion) of the global population already lives in cities, the threats cities and urban loci pose to humans and the entire planet will only increase unless fundamental changes are implemented globally. Such threats include:^{[1] [2] [3]}

• Deeper poverty and injustice, resulting from intensive urban growth (because local governments are unable/unwilling to equitably provide services for all people)
• Worsening climate crisis, as cities are the primary contributors, consuming two-thirds of all energy and generating more than 70% of carbon emissions
• Greater air, water, and land pollution, due to concentrated and disproportionate energy, water, and natural (both renewable and non-renewable) resource use, causing significant negative impact on human health and ecological health (e.g., biodiversity loss, land erosion, groundwater depletion, etc.) 
• Increased health hazards (e.g., epidemics) due to large volumes of uncollected waste, inadequate sanitation, and high human density, without adequate living biodiverse natural retreats within cities
• Heightened risk of environmental disasters, such as flash flooding, due partly to cities being built on deforested and/or reclaimed land paved over by impermeable concrete

Three Harmful Aspects of Cities

1. Cities harbor individuals wielding economic-political power in a globally centralized extractivist system 

In addition to infrastructure, logistical, and behavioral challenges faced in and by cities, cities across the world are also the seats of consolidated economic and political power. In an increasingly extractivist global trade system exploiting communities who have been rendered dependent, cities shelter the individuals running a handful of global for-profit corporations (and their government allies). Many of these individuals exert immense extractivist control over natural resources and humans, causing widespread inequity and ecocide through inequitable resource allocation (and misappropriation), nearly unbridled consumption, and tremendous waste. 

The cities such individuals influence and inhabit epitomize these inequities in how the cities are politically, architecturally, socioeconomically, and culturally structured.

2. The urban powerful maximize profit-making by destroying biodiversity and cultural diversity (jīvacide)

The primary goal of extractivism (underlying the globally imposed trade system) is to amass wealth and privatized human/ecological resources for a handful of individuals running corporations (and governments). One of the ways to amass wealth is by producing industrially mass-made Commodities and Services (C/S) and then selling these C/S to as many people as possible to make profit. 

Accordingly, one of the most effective ways to create an ever-growing market for perpetually expanding profit-making is to render communities dependent on consuming commodities that others manufacture, instead of these communities being able to provide and care for themselves. How is this achieved? Through jīvacide^[4], the destruction of the jīvadiversity (diversity in living)^[5] of human communities, i.e., the destruction of their inherent culturally and ecologically rooted creativity, self-reliance, and resilience.

In short, the urban-based powerful destroy the ecological-cultural diversity-rooted self-reliance of Indigenous/rural communities, rendering them susceptible to exploitation and being converted into consumers of mass-produced, extractivist, resource-intensive C/S.

3. Disconnectedness from producers causes urban-dwellers to over-consume and waste

In general, people in cities/urban loci — and not just the wealthiest — consume (and waste) much more than their rural counterparts. What underlies such behavior? 

Cities/urban loci are generally isolated from the ecologies that provide the natural resources (both renewable and non-renewable) urban-dwellers require for their survival and comfort. Thus, those living in cities are often not aware of how much time, energy, water, and resources (ecological and human) are consumed to produce the C/S they consume, including those fulfilling basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicines, as well as those satisfying wants, such as electric cars, computers, phones, etc. As a consequence, urban-dwellers may not understand the socioeconomic and ecological damage their consumption habits have on their fellow humans (those producing the C/S) and planet, leading them to consume much more than they need and to generate waste.

The urban-centric system, as entrenched in cities, is one in which much of the population is rendered highly dependent for its survival on humans and natural resources far away, often hundreds or thousands of miles away. Thus, the system is characterized by disconnectedness, which breeds both indifference to the wellbeing of humans and ecologies providing what urban-dwellers need to thrive and also ignorance of why the sustained wellbeing of the providers is essential to everyone’s survival. In short, an underlying cause governing the over-consuming behavior of urban-dwellers is disconnectedness from the human and ecological context of those living beings and non-living entities who are the providers.

The FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi) Solution: Sahankuri (Regenerative Rural Innovation & Culture Centers)

The FiveBecomings (Pañchabhūmi)^[6] project developed by the Śramani Institute is an integrated solution to counter the globally systematic ecocide (killing of living and non-living components of ecological webs (ecowebs)^[7]) and jīvacide^[4] that have caused irreversible biodiversity loss (species extinction), the climate crisis, and widespread inequity (injustice, poverty, disenfranchisement, identity loss, hunger, violence). Within the FiveBecomings Framework^[8], poverty is re-defined as the state of being unable to fulfill basic needs.^[9]

Therefore, the goal of FiveBecomings projects is to restore the interconnected (ecosymbiotic) wellbeing of diverse humans and ecologies across all bioregions, so that beneficiary communities (Communities) can (re-)establish ecosymbiotic self-reliance^[10], i.e., regeneratively produce the Commodities and Services (C/S) required to fulfill their basic needs from their own ecowebs. At the heart of each FiveBecomings project is a FiveBecomings Commons^[11] that is stewarded by the local Community (inhabiting a cluster of 7-15 villages within 10 km) who maintain and sustainably use the ecological resources of their Commons to regeneratively produce C/S.^[12] 

Within 10 years of being established, a FiveBecomings Commons transitions to a Sahankuri (saha (together) + ankur (sprout)), a new type of rural innovation & culture center that offers the essential amenities of a city, but rooted in Indigenous/local biodiversity, cultural and ecological identity (ecoself), principles of regeneration, and community self-reliance. Each Sahankuri is unique due to its particular landscape (ecoweb) and Community context (Community-ecoself^[13]) and features:

• Water centers
• Innovation & entrepreneurship hubs
• Native biodiverse food forest
• Native biodiverse nature preserve
• Retreat
• Beauty center
• Health center
• Energy & waste processing centers
• Cultural centers
• Native biodiverse market (SHOPS)
• Learning/unlearning centers (EDUCATION)
• Native biodiverse food fields
• Community center
• Women’s shelter
• Native biodiverse cuisine (RESTAURANTS)
• Animal-based transport

Thus, a network of diverse Sahankuri (Sustainable Agroecological Hub Anchored in Native Knowledge, Use, and Regenerative Innovation) across bioregions is a regenerative rural alternative to urban-centric systems and lifestyles, in that it:

• sustains a decentralized, regenerative economic-political system based on community-stewarded resources;
• minimizes exploitation susceptibility by restoring bio- & cultural diversity-based community self-reliance; and 
• reconnects humans to each other and their ecologies through local regenerative production and lifestyles.

1. UNDP, Rapid urbanisation: opportunities and challenges to improve the well-being of societies, Human Development Reports (6 Sep., 2017) (https://hdr.undp.org/content/rapid-urbanisation-opportunities-and-challenges-improve-well-being-societies).

2. Urban Threats, National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/urban-threats).

3. M. Tran, The challenges and opportunities of growing urbanization, The University of British Columbia (https://apscpp.ubc.ca/news-events/the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-growing-urbanization).

4. K. Mitra, FiveBecomings: Countering Ecocide and Jīvacide Through a Non-Human-Centric Approach, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-003 (2 Sep., 2025).

5. K. Mitra, Beyond Biodiversity: Jīvadiversity — Diversity in Living, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-003 (21 Aug., 2025).

6. K. Mitra, Restoring the Interconnected Wellbeing of Humans and Ecologies Through FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-010 (26 Aug., 2025).

7. K. Mitra, Ecological Webs (Ecowebs): Collaborative Creativity Through Adaptation Feedback Loops, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-006 (3 Sep., 2025).

8. K. Mitra, FiveBecomings: A Reimagined Ancient Indigenous Framework for Ecoself-Rooted Wellbeing, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh122024-004 (15 Dec., 2024).

9. K. Mitra, Poverty: Not Lack of Money, but Severance from Ecowebs, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-026 (13 Sep., 2025).

10. S. Mukherjee & K. Mitra, Ecosymbiotic Self-Reliance: Fulfilling Basic Needs from Ecowebs, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-010 (11 Sep., 2025).

11. K. Mitra & S. Mukherjee, FiveBecomings Projects for Community Self-Reliance: Design and Implementation, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh082025-001 (18 Aug., 2025).

12. K. Mitra, Importance of the FiveBecomings Commons: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Joy, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-004 (2 Sep., 2025).

13. K. Mitra, Individual Ecoself and Community-Ecoself: Importance in FiveBecomings, Ecosymbionts all Regenerate Together (EaRTh): DOI-EaRTh092025-011 (10 Sep., 2025).