The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Horticulture Department started Hasiru Mitra (friend of parks/green spaces) in 2023 with two objectives: To maintain the city’s parks and to engage citizens as active stakeholders.
“Hasiru Mitras work in collaboration with the BBMP officials and the contractors. They have to oversee the work of the contractors and check whether the officials are visiting the parks. If there are any issues, they bring it to our notice,” says Chandrasekhar MR, Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture.
Meanwhile, out of the approximately 1,237 parks maintained by the BBMP across eight zones in the city, Hasiru Mitras have been selected for about 314. At this point, no one seems to be able to answer why there are so few volunteers for the initiative.
Read more: BBMP’s Kere Mitra: Bridging gaps or missing the point?
The Hasiru Mitras have mixed responses about the initiative, with some saying it is a good platform to bring citizens and authorities together, and others expressing dissatisfaction with inconsistent communication.
How Hasiru Mitras were chosen
A notification with a website link to apply for Hasiru Mitra was published in newspapers. The selection was done via an online randomisation process. Once the volunteers were chosen in March 2024, they were given a unique ID and password.
The volunteers were selected for a period of three months, but Chandrasekhar clarifies that they will continue with the current volunteers for an indefinite period of time, till the application process is reopened. “This is because application processes usually take some time,” says Chandrasekhar.
The initiative does not have a dedicated app yet and Hasiru Mitras raise tickets on the Sahaaya 2.0 (Namma Bengaluru) app to bring their concerns regarding the parks to the notice of authorities. They also interact with the officials on WhatsApp groups.
Tasks that Hasiru Mitras oversee
- Daily sweeping
- Pruning of hedges, shrubs and other plants
- Weeding
- Watering
- Lawn mowing and borewell maintenance
- Opening and closing of gates as per rules
- Garbage removal
- All electrical works of the parks
A good initiative
Jaideep, Hasiru Mitra of Sankey Tank Park, says the initiative gives citizens the responsibility to have their say. “It is a very good platform to connect. The officials would not have known most of the small issues related to the parks, had it not been raised by the volunteers.”
Improve communication
However, one volunteer, on condition of anonymity, says that the WhatsApp group is not too active and that the last update on the group was towards the end of last month. He thinks more discussions on the WhatsApp group would be useful to build a connection and added that no orientation programme for the volunteers, online or offline, had been conducted.
Lalithamba BV, another Hasiru Mitra of a park in Bommanahalli zone, says that the role of the volunteer is only to oversee park maintenance. “Since Hasiru Mitra doesn’t have a separate app, tickets are raised on Sahaaya. But, the grievance redressal app has some problems, for example, with mapping of the right officials. Otherwise, it is a good way to raise issues.”
Volunteers can meet officials and discuss their concerns about the upkeep of the park. “The intent behind the initiative is good, as it bridges the communication gap between citizens and the authorities.” However, it is early days to tell if this programme will be effective in the long run. “But it would be nice to know about the funds allocated for the upkeep of the park,” she adds.
Lalithamba reiterated that no orientation or training has been conducted for the volunteers.
Read more: A tale of three parks
Park monitoring reports live
The park monitoring reports along with the Kere Mitra inspection reports are now live. You need to scroll down to see the zones, click on them and it brings out information about the wards; within that there are individual parks and their details.
The following screenshots will help you understand how to access the information:
Need for more Hasiru Mitras
Vinod Jacob, General manager of Namma Bengaluru Foundation and member of We Love Cubbon Park Association, says that maintenance of parks falls short because the zones are not empowered. “Everything is centralised. Take for example the Mahatma Gandhi Park, there was a recent report about how it is not being maintained properly.”
He adds that the focus should not just be on beautification but also on conserving the environment. “Water crisis is an issue now, so it is important to have ingu gundis (water pits) in parks — Cubbon Park and Lalbagh have them, but is this being done in every park?”
Seemingly small things make a big difference, and this is something Hasiru Mitras need to be aware of. “Protecting trees is of utmost importance, to ensure this certain aspects need to be looked into. Tree guards should be removed so that the trees can grow properly, but this is being neglected. Tree roots are cemented, but this does not allow percolation of water, this should be addressed,” Vinod adds.
Considering that there are thousands of parks in Bengaluru, 314 Hasiru Mitras are clearly not enough to ensure that all the parks are being maintained properly. Vinod says, “There should at least be 2,000 Hasiru Mitras to get citizens truly involved in park maintenance.”
Those who are not Hasiru Mitras but want to raise complaints about park maintenance issues, can visit the Sahaaya app