Dharavi has been one of the most (in)famous destinations in Mumbai. Asia’s largest slum and second largest in the world, it is a life unto itself.

Besides the fact that real estate developers would like to leech out the residents to get their hands on the underlying land for their selfish needs, it has become a de facto recycling plant for the city.

you will find here one of the most inspiring economic models in Asia. Dharavi may be one of the world’s largest slums, but it is by far its most prosperous - a thriving business centre propelled by thousands of micro-entrepreneurs who have created an invaluable industry - turning around the discarded waste of Mumbai’s 19 million citizens. A new estimate by economists of the output of the slum is as impressive as it seems improbable: £700m a year.

For Dharavi’s detractors, mainly Mumbai’s city fathers and real estate developers, keen to get their hands on the prime land beneath the sprawl, the shanty is an embarrassing boil to be lanced from the body of an ambitious city hoping to become the next Shanghai.

But for a growing number of environmental campaigners Dharavi is becoming the green lung stopping Mumbai choking to death on its own waste.

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