City: Bengaluru

In the first part of this series, we explained how compensatory afforestation is a sham - compensatory saplings are not tracked or cared for, or are planted way outside the city. In this part, we explore why trees are felled in the first place without public consultations. Environmentalists in Bengaluru have pointed out the curious trend of tree-cutting packages awarded in bunches of 49 trees or lesser. Why is this? Section 8 (3)(vii) of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976, stipulates that if more than 50 trees need to be cut for any infrastructure purpose like road construction or…

‘Whitefield phase BMRCL gets over 44 acres from central ministry,’ said a recent headline in the Economic Times. The news report said that the state Revenue Department had agreed to hand over 16 acres of land in Thippagondanahalli and another 30 acres from six villages in Kali Tiger Reserve forest, to the Forest Department. The land transfer was on behalf of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). With this, the “hurdle” that delayed BMRCL from acquiring forest land was cleared, making way for Metro construction in Whitefield. What was the “hurdle”? BMRCL had identified 45.18 acres of forest land…

BBMP removes 2021 encroachments in KR Market On Friday, BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) cleared KR Market of 2021 encroachments and dozens of unauthorised shops. BBMP got together 390 personnel, 48 tractors, 15 lorries, eight compactors, eight earthmovers and 30 marshals, besides the traffic police, to clear the encroachments. The drive resulted in 240 loads of debris. Just a day before, BBMP Commissioner had inspected the market and promised to clear illegal constructions and footpath encroachments. The drive was in response a High Court directive on a PIL. The Bengaluru Flower Merchants’ Association had filed a PIL in 2017, questioning…

Come summer and Bengalureans can be seen obsessively discussing water, or rather the lack of it. While water tankers bring momentary relief, residents can’t help pondering over the long-term implications of water shortage. To find solutions to the water crisis, the third water workshop organised by ADDA, a company that offers an integrated apartment management software for gated communities, brought to light several ongoing sustainable water management initiatives. On March 23rd, representatives of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), citizen groups and activists met at the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) campus to seek solutions to the ongoing water crisis in…

There is huge variation in how Bengalureans source water and how much we pay for it. Older parts of the city get piped supply from BWSSB, supplemented by individual borewells, while the periphery is largely dependent on borewells and private tanker water supply. While BWSSB charges per kilolitre range from Rs 7 (for individual residences) to Rs 22 (for apartments), private suppliers can charge anywhere upwards of Rs 100 a KL. To get a better sense of the city’s water situation, we are conducting a survey on where you are sourcing water from, and what you are paying for it.…

Gospel of Matthew 12:25, KJV:25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto him, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. The polling booth where you cast your vote, corresponds to a specific geographic area called a ‘part’. Each parliamentary and assembly constituency is divided into several parts, and the structure of a part is the same for both. A part should be formed in a way that the polling booth is within the walkable distance of two kilometres for all voters. For example, a booth in…

The call for a ‘Swachh Bharat’ irritates me, because my city is far from being clean. Bengaluru, my charming garden city, is being destroyed every day. Of course, the burgeoning population could be the primary cause, but what is happening to the civic sense of the citizens? What role do the civic authorities play? Most main roads are dug up for construction of flyovers, metro rail or some road widening project. Don’t even ask about the roads within residential areas. Beautiful bungalows are mindlessly demolished to build apartments with a minimum of four storeys (with one more illegal storey, of…

NGT committee inspects Varthur lake A surprise inspection of Varthur lake turned out to be shocking for a committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), headed by Justice N Santosh Hegde. In contrast to the picture painted by officials, the team found a depleted water body. The lake was encroached by a two-kilometre-long road, near its feeder canal. The committee also found other encroachments, such as pipelines inside the lake. Citizens complained to Justice Hegde that the road and the canal had not been cleared despite NGT's orders. They said that the recently built sluice gates were affecting the natural…

In the last few years, most borewells in our apartment in east Bengaluru, off Outer Ring Road, went dry with the depletion of groundwater levels. Our water expenses skyrocketed and we had to regularly keep increasing maintenance charges to cover the cost. We are a mid-range 10-year-old apartment community with 171 flats spread across four blocks, having a swimming pool, a small clubhouse and a gym.  Early last year, we implemented three measures to reduce water use. The outcome was that our water use and costs reduced by 52 percent in a year!  Water meters for accountability Most apartments don’t…

As Bengaluru prepares for the Lok Sabha polls less than three weeks away, the police have launched yet another drive to “document” residents living in apartment complexes across the city. As per directions sent out by Bengaluru City Police (BCP), apartment owners' associations have been asked to provide full details of their residents and safety and surveillance assets, as part of the police’s 'Preventive Security Measures'. A similar ‘police verification of tenants' exercise had been initiated in 2008 by the then-Bengaluru police commissioner Shankar Bidari under the ‘Safe Bangalore’ scheme. The only difference between then and now is that unlike…