The link between quality of urban development and its impact on environment has for long been debated. The authors attempt to assess the impact that India's rapidly urbanizing cities and related development are having on urban environment. The authors emphasize on the 'quality' of development while attempting to answer this question and indicate that quality factors, such as, density, urban massing and spatial pattern of land use, as well as socio-economic and cultural factors resulting from these, have an important bearing on the quality of urban environment in Indian cities. The authors conclude that several physical and human environmental factors need to be further evaluated from a new perspective to gain insights into perceived and measured components that influence environmental quality.