City: Bengaluru

Farmers protest, call for bandh on Sept 28 Hundreds of farmers blocked major highways and state highways in and around Bengaluru on Friday morning to protest the amendment to Land Revenue Act and the APMC Act passed in Parliament. The protest and blocking of roads was called by Ryot, Dalit, Labourers Aikya Horata Samithi - a collective of 35 farmers' groups, Dalit and trade unions. It affected the movement of regular traffic at Nayandahalli and Goragunte Palya junction. Police personnel were deployed at many places to prevent complete blockade of key routes. Hundreds of farmers courted arrest and were taken…

It's been five years since GAIL Gas Limited (GGL) got a contract to supply Piped Natural Gas (PNG) in Bengaluru. The aim was for GGL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAIL (India) Limited, to give PNG connection to 1.32 lakh homes and 200 industries in the city by 2020. But PNG, a cost-effective, green fuel, is yet to reach large parts of the city. Karthika P S N, a resident at JP Nagar’s RBI Layout, says she's awaiting a natural gas connection since it's "eco-friendly and cheap, and will relieve us from being dependent on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders". She…

Flanked by the Outer Ring Road, where unceasing traffic spews noxious fumes, and a concreted canal where heaps of plastic float amid sewage, the Hennur Lake Biodiversity Park is an incongruous speck of green in a wide swath of concrete. And for a few slender loris individuals, it is an unlikely home. As implausible as it may seem, gray slender lorises (Loris lydekkerianus) have clung to life while the city’s concrete-scape has cornered them into this 34-acre park. At least 4-5 individuals of the beady-eyed, small, elusive primate species has been spotted in the canopies of the park. Surveys conducted between…

When 2020 started, we wouldn’t have imagined that schools would shut down, playing outdoors would be unsafe, regular income will be affected, and that staying at home would become the only way to stay safe.  Personally, I  haven’t been able to venture out for plogging -- something that I have enjoyed doing for close to three years now. Running-plus-picking-waste has been an effective way of keeping the environment clean and creating awareness. COVID made me and my team, The Indian Ploggers Army, realise that even if we’re not able to plog, there are other things we can do. The gaps…

On September 23, the Deputy Comissioner, Bengaluru Urban district, is hosting a virtual public consultation to discuss the environmental impacts of the proposed Peripheral Ring Road (PRR). The project has been in the news for a number of issues - continued public opposition over non-availability of the Detailed Project Report (DPR); the validity of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report; the number of trees which will be felled for it; the plethora of court cases brought in by a number of citizens set to lose their properties. That is quite a long list. Sure, the devil is in the details,…

The long-pending Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) has turned controversial for its environmental impacts and lack of transparency. The project would lose Bengaluru over 33,000 trees, including in the Thippagondanahalli Reservoir catchment and in reserve forest areas. On Wednesday, September 23, the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Urban District will hold a public consultation (webinar) on the project's environmental impacts. BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) is implementing the project, and its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is available online. Here are details of the public hearing and how you can attend it. Do the environmental impacts of the PRR justify the project? Will…

Sanctions from the Centre for the ORR-Airport Metro line is expected to take longer. Representational image: Ramnath Bhat (Wikimedia Commons) Vrishabhavathi river turns frothy dark yellow Vrishabhavathi River has changed its colour from black to turquoise blue to dark yellow with froth, over the past month. Things had worsened last week, when the water turned soapy like caustic soda. On Thursday morning, a pungent smell filled the air as the river turned yellow. Namami Vrishabhavathi, a citizens' group, brought the matter to the notice of the State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). Residents suspect that electroplating and textile-dyeing industries have been…

A couple voting in the BBMP elections of 2015. What does it mean for Bengalureans to not have an elected Council now? File Pic: Akshatha M On September 10, the tenure of the BBMP Council ended, and the state government stepped in to appoint senior bureaucrat Gaurav Gupta as the corporation's administrator. Gaurav Gupta will remain in charge of the corporation until a new bunch of corporators are elected in the next Council election. It was a move that didn't surprise many who had been watching the space. But the Council elections aren't on the horizon anytime soon - partly…

Representational image: Ramesh Meda/(CC BY 2.0) Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Before buying any property, you need to investigate all documents provided by the current property owner, and authenticate these with the agencies issuing the documents. There are two kinds of documents to check for — primary and secondary documents of title. Primary documents of title are the most essential as they show the ownership history of the property being sold. Some of the secondary documents of title help corroborate the information mentioned in the primary documents. The other secondary documents help the buyer…

On August 29, BBMP issued an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on dealing with complaints on the killing of stray dogs. Following is an edited version of BBMP's press release. The killing of an animal by any method is illegal and is a cognisable offence under Sec 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, and Sec 428 of the Indian Penal Code. These laws provide for lodging of police complaints and filing of FIRs in such cases. So, if you have reason to suspect that the death of a stray dog is due to poisoning or killing, you…