Bellandur Buzz…
Issue # 38
Date: 18th June 2015
This newsletter is brought to you by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.com
Local SWM champions feature in News 9
Mass illegal burning of garbage near Prakriya and Primus concerned some parents who then visited the area with a BBMP official only to discover to their shock that burnt garbage was being packaged as KCDC branded compost. Here is the coverage by News 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=espPDCwvve0
Happenings at Saul Kere:
Clean up by the volunteers
Kids enjoy activities by the lake
World environment day was celebrated at Saul Kere on June 6 with 50+ volunteers from Genpact and Deloitte, who gathered at Saul Kere to clean the bund and the island areas, which was followed by the planting of over 400 saplings. The event was organised by United Way with support from Genpact and MAPSAS. Dr. Yellappa Reddy from the Bangalore Environment Trust addressed the gathering and emphasized the need for corporate and community involvement for the upkeep of lakes in the city. Local residents gathered with kids to lend their support to the lake’s revival. The kids had a fun time painting pictures on lake-related themes.
Dr. Subbu Subramanya, renowned ornithologist from Bangalore Agriculture University, visited the lake on June 13 to help the lake custodians plan its development to encourage the growth of bio-diversity at the lake. Dr. Subbu shared several useful insights on landscape improvements, sewage water treatment, the layout of the water body and the choice of trees and plants that will make the lake an attraction to both land and water birds. Captain Prabhala from Bangalore Environment Trust, Mr. B V Satish, Chief Engineer Lakes, BBMP and representatives from Genpact, United Way, Indus Herbs (landscape contractor) and MAPSAS were present to interact with Dr Subbu and take his suggestions on steps forward.
In an interesting aside, Dr Subbu and MAPSAS representative traced dirty water being let into the lake in large quantities to the RMZ Eco World campus and immediately took it up with their maintenance manager on site who reacted positively and stopped the flow promptly. This violation was reported a week earlier by the lake security team and the BBMP had sent a notice to Adarsh Developers to stop this violation but to no avail till yesterday. Continuous monitoring and prompt reporting of such violations is required to prevent these blatant violations by such large commercial enterprises.
Update by: Subramaian Sankaran
Know your neighborhood
Green Glen Layout (GGL) is a community with more than 5000 people staying in more than 1500 flats and some individual residences. GGL is surrounded by some elegant residential apartment. Sobha, AKME and on one side we have Bellandur Village. There are many commercial establishments, clinics, restaurants catering to the needs of people here. To make GGL a better place to live-in Green Glen Residents Association (GGRA) was formed in the year 2005. GGRA is a socially-responsible registered society (under Government of Karnataka) of people who are interested in the social welfare of the people living in and around Bellandur.
GGRA volunteers work to fix their neighborhood
GGRA volunteers work
Recently GGRA took an initiative to fence the open space adjoining a road in the layout to protect people while using the open space for playing games, for using it as a jogging and children’s park – this was done to avoid road accidents. Also, with help from local enthusiasts and BBMP, more than 500 saplings were planted of which many have grown well and helped to reduce the carbon footprint in this area. Volunteers from this layout meet on regular intervals to remove the posters & banners from tree trunks, compound walls and junction boxes to drive “Swachh Layout” dream forward. People living in this area are working towards safer, greener and cleaner space to live.
Some activities done last month:
1. Fencing the open space to avoid accident and use for public parks
2. Planting saplings
3. Removing posters, banners
Upcoming event at GGRA – International Yoga day
Date – 21st June 2015,
Time – 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM,
Place – GGRA football ground. Near the Park and behind Toyota Show room.
A yoga professional will guide the participants. Please bring your own Yoga mat and wear comfortable clothes for the session.
Update Courtesy: Bhanu Vegesna and Jyotiranjan Nayak.
Zero plastic run
Venue: Sarjapur Decathlon
Date: 20th June
Reporting time: 6:00 am
Organized by Decathlon Sarjapur and supported by Kasa Muktha Bellandur and local SWM and running enthusiasts.
The run carries the message to stop single use disposable products mainly of plastic while pursuing a health activity like running. Disposables used in most races and events are either low value recyclables or come at a high recycling cost. Even plastic bottles are not remade from recyclable plastic. Hence using single use disposable plastic is a waste of resource. It is much better to reduce this kind of waste than trying to recycle huge quantities of the same. Reusable options are plenty, economical and it is just a matter of evolving the process to manage them hygienically.
Register here: https://www.townscript.com/zero-plastic-run
My well, Our water
Date : 27th June 2015
Time : 9:30am to 1:30pm (followed by lunch)
Venue : WIPRO, Sarjapura Road, Bangalore
Over the past 1 year, ACWADAM, BIOME, WIPRO and MAPUNITY have been working on a participatory project to map the AQUIFERS in the area around Sarjapura Road (8 MicroWatersheds spread across 33 sqkm in South East Bangalore which is completely dependent on ground water). This is an update on the project.
Please confirm your participation to Shubha Ramachandran 98451-84281
This edition was co-edited by Ritesh Chitalia.
Write to us: thebellandurbuzz@gmail.com