City: Bengaluru

In mid-February, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike went into a tizzy as COVID clusters were identified in different parts of the city. Emergency meetings were held, new guidelines issued, entry of travellers from two neighbouring states restricted. Does this mean the city will soon see a second wave? After a major peak in cases last year, COVID positivity rate and case fatality rate had been steadily declining in Bengaluru. While positivity rate indicates the percentage of positive cases among those tested, case fatality rate (CFR) is the percentage of deaths among those who tested positive. The following graph, from the…

This is the tale of a father who feels bad that his daughter has to suffer due to the greed of private schools. Let me share how I got involved with the school fee issue; and how it impacts us parents. My daughter is in the third standard. We were extremely shocked to realise that access to her online classes was blocked by her school on August 5, 2020. She has studied in this school right from Nursery. We soon learnt that many private schools have blocked online education to some kids. Almost all parents have been paying whatever schools…

The upwardly mobile Indian middle-classes are willing to pay more for private school education for their children. By how much though, has long been a matter of contention between them and private school managements. Lower and middle-income families, for whom their children’s annual school fees -- like house-rent -- is a substantial portion of their income, find it beyond their means. Even if they may not have fought it, most of them have complaints against the existing fee structure. COVID-19 brought them to the streets.  At best, the pandemic left many with income-cuts. At worst, they lost their jobs. With…

Six COVID clusters The number of COVID-19 clusters in the city rose from three to six after the detection of 19 cases -- two of them in educational institutions -- in Yelahanka on Friday. Agragami College, Sambhram Academy of Management Studies and Purva Venezia apartments are the three new clusters. Earlier, the city's third cluster was detected when 26 persons in SJR Watermark Apartment in Ambalipura, Bellandur ward, were found Covid positive. They are all asymptomatic and under home quarantine. The UK, South Africa or Brazil variants of the coronavirus have not been found in the cluster at Manjushree Nursing…

As students of biology and sustainability, we believe that the government was right in abandoning plans of converting a natural forest into a constructed tree park. The following article details our thoughts on the same. The Turahalli forest that encompasses close to 600 acres of dry decidious forests off Kanakapura road, is a critical ecological space for Bengaluru.  In late 2020, the Chief Minister of Karnataka unveiled the Bengaluru Mission 2022, which aims to improve the city’s infrastructure to support the growing population and also restore Bengaluru’s former glory as the “Garden City”. As part of this mission, the government…

ಸುಧಾ ವಿ ಉತ್ತರಹಳ್ಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹೂವಿನ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗಷ್ಟೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರವೇಶ ಪಡೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಚಿತ್ರ: ಪ್ರಗತಿ ರವಿ Translated by Madhusudhan Rao ಸುಧಾ ವಿ, ತನ್ನ ಹೂವಿನ ಗಾಡಿಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಹತ್ತಿರದಲ್ಲಿ ಓಡಾಡುವ ಹಸುಗಳನ್ನು ಓಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ, ಉತ್ತರಹಳ್ಳಿಯ ಪ್ರಮುಖ ರಸ್ತೆಯೊಂದರಲ್ಲಿ ಬೀದಿವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಮಕರ ಸಂಕ್ರಾಂತಿಯ ದಿನದಂದು ಗ್ರಾಹಕರ ಹೆಚ್ಚಳ ಇದ್ದರೆ, ಮರುದಿನ ಕಥೆಯೇ ಬೇರೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಹಿಂದಿನ ದಿನ ತಾಜಾತನ ತುಂಬಿದ್ದ ಕೆಂಪು ಗುಲಾಬಿಗಳನ್ನು ಕೇಳುವವರೇ ಇರಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಸಾಲದ್ದಕ್ಕೆ, ಅದೇ ರಸ್ತೆಯ ಬಳಿ ಮಾರಾಟ ಮಾಡುವ ಇತರ ಮೂರು ಹೂಗಾಡಿಗಳ ಜೊತೆ ತೀವ್ರ ಪೈಪೋಟಿ ಎದುರಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಕೋವಿಡ್ ಪಿಡುಗಿನಿಂದ ಉದ್ಯೋಗಗಳು ನಷ್ಟವಾದಾಗ, ಅನೇಕರು ಅನೌಪಚಾರಿಕ ವಲಯಕ್ಕೆ ತೆರಳಿದ್ದು, ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ ದುಡಿಮೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು, ಅದು ಮೂಲ ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಅವಲಂಬಿತ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರವೇಶಿಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭ ಅನ್ನುವ ಕಾರಣಕ್ಕೆ. ರಸ್ತೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ, ವಿಶೇಷವಾಗಿ, ನಗರದಲ್ಲಿ ಗಮನಾರ್ಹವಾಗಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿದೆ. ಮನೆ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಸುಧಾ, ಲಾಕ್‌ಡೌನ್ ನಿಂದ ತಾನು ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ಅರ್ಧಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮನೆಗಳ…

This summary of a research project -- carried out by a group of students at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements -- brings out how the rich and powerful residents of an exclusive and quiet locality in the city influence the use of their public spaces by street vendors. While street vendors are a common sight in any urban neighbourhood, Sadashivanagar is not just any other neighbourhood. The daunting presence of government officials and politicians -- its chief residents -- fills the silence and emptiness of the inner streets of this locality. Sadashivanagar, cocooned in between Sankey Tank, Palace Grounds…

Civil society in Bengaluru erupted spontaneously to protest the state government’s plan to set up a tree park in Turahalli Mini Forest, south of the city. A Jhatkaa.org campaign to save the forest garnered over 13,000 signatures. Turahalli is one of the last remaining forest patches within the city. The Forest Department began work on the project without either a public consultation or placing the project details in the public domain. The project is part of Chief Minister C M Yediyurappa’s ‘Bengaluru Mission 2022’. Following sustained protests, Forest Minister Aravind Limbavali and Minister of Co-operation and the area MLA (Yeshwantapur…

Death by air pollution A Greenpeace Southeast Asia report on Thursday estimated that Bengaluru recorded 12,000 avoidable deaths due to PM 2.5 air pollution in 2020. The city fared better than Delhi and Mumbai, but worse than Chennai, Hyderabad, and Lucknow. The ‘Cost Estimator’ online tool estimated the real-time health impact and economic cost from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), using real-time ground-level PM 2.5 measurements collated in IQAir’s database. Apart from waste burning, construction, industries, and DG sets, the fossil-fuelled transport sector was the key emission source. Polluted air increases the likelihood of deaths owing to cancer and stroke,…

The swanky new Sir M Visveswaraya railway terminal at Baiyappanahalli is due to be opened towards the end of this month. The butterfly-shaped terminal, built at around Rs 350 crore, is bound to be a transportation hub on the eastern end of the city. When operational, this terminal could take the load off the two other major railway terminals in the city: the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway station in Majestic and Yeshwanthpur railway station. While the terminal itself promises to be a state-of-the-art facility, its usability has many hurdles. Access and connectivity to this terminal is the main issue. For…