A study has found that a majority of people in Kolkata choose the environment over development, while residents of Delhi want to strike a balance but are unaware of pollution policies, waste management and forest conservation. People in Chennai, on the other hand, are cutting down trees like they have to build a city in a rainforest.

There are some things, though, that people in every city want: blue skies, clean water and roads with less traffic. And air pollution is a common worry. In between 45% and 50% of respondents in Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai are upset with the air they breathe.

The study, by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), covered six Indian metros.

More than 70% of respondents in the national capital are unaware of environment policies. About 70% of respondents in Kolkata feel it is more important to protect the environment than focus on development, 59% of people who participated in the study in Delhi and 34 % of those in Mumbai said it would be ideal to pay equal attention to the environment and development.

A total of 4,039 people participated in the study, with the number of respondents in each city proportionate to its population. A total of 401 people took part in the study in Bangalore, while they were 431 participants in Chennai, 1,114 in Delhi, 379 in Hyderabad, 704 in Kolkata and 1,010 in Mumbai.

In a reflection of Bangalore's efficient public transport network and civic consciousness, 90 per cent of the respondents in IT hub said they used public transport more than three times a week. Only 50 per cent of participants in other cities used public transport so regularly.

Only 30% of respondents from Chennai wanted environment protection to be top priority compared to 65% of those from Kolkata. Conservationist Theodore Bhaskaran says the attitude of residents towards their environment is directly linked to how many people have a feeling of emotional ownership regarding their city.

"How many of us emotionally own our cities? If you are less emotional about your city, you are likely to care little for the environment too," he said.

Bhaskaran environmental concern is like literacy. "We need to develop literature on the environment and the need to protect it and start campaigns in local language instead of sticking to English, which will limit it to an elite class," he said.

TERI director-general R K Pachauri said respondents from all cities except Hyderabad said the drinking water situation had improved in terms of quality and availability.

General perception is that surface water quality has deteriorated in all cities except Mumbai, the study shows. Respondents of all cities with the exception of Chennai said groundwater levels had fallen. But urban forests, birds and animals are disappearing in all six cities, the respondents said.

Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad are upset over their waste management system, but Kolkata and Mumbai feel their waste handling systems have improved.