City: Bengaluru

Madivala lake to developed into biodiversity park: Madiwala lake in BTM layout is going to be transformed into a biodiversity park with ground water retention, an open butterfly park, and an ecosystem with equal importance given to both flaura and fauna. The renovation of the 272-acre lake into biodiversity park was largely due to the proposal by Karnataka Knowledge Commission. Professor CR Babu, Centre for Environment Management of Degraded Ecosystems, DU, is heading the project, which also includes a conservatory and a herbal garden. Source: The Hindu 3500 garbage transport auto-rickshaws untraceable - a Rs 252 crore scam? : It…

An auto stops on Tannery road. Five adults seat themselves in the back. One adult, with a toddler on his lap, shares the seat with the driver. The overcrowded auto carries them forward, navigating narrow roads. It swiftly drops them in a location and picks up more passengers going to a nearby destination. This is a common practice across Bengaluru today where there is insufficient last mile connectivity. The concept of shared autos prevalent in Chennai and Hyderabad has slowly entered Bengaluru over the years, but this informal system is relatively unheard of and seldom spoken about. Auto drivers who…

Even as the leaden, monsoon skies are darkening over an overgrown metro, many might be surprised to learn that Bengaluru was added to the ‘Smart City’ list on June, 2017. It has become the seventh city from Karnataka to get into the Smart City list. It bemuses many, because the 'honour' and implication is still not very well-known to everyone. A year after the city has become part of the list, there is still delay in implementation. Why? It is a big project, after all, says AR Ravi, Joint Director (Planning), Urban Development Department (UDD). Just the planning and the…

Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan was carried out on June 10, 2018, Sunday morning from 9 am to 11 am in RBI Layout JP Nagar 7th phase, Bengaluru. Around 50 residents participated in the drive, to cover almost 30 roads, and collected more than 25 sacks of paper, plastics, liquor bottles, etc. thrown in the roads, drainage etc. This drive cannot make the city clean immediately, but it will wake up sleeping people. It will bring change in the mindset of people who throw garbage everywhere. The programme organised by RBI Layout Resident Welfare Association was supported by BBMP staff of JP…

This article is supported by SVP Cities of India Fellowship Even as green cover in Bengaluru has been steadily declining over the last few decades, some efforts to reverse this phenomena are gathering momentum. The Government of Karnataka drafted The Karnataka Tree Cover Enhancement Policy, 2016 that targeted increasing forest and tree cover from the current 21% to 33%; in cities planting was to be done in residential and other layouts, institutional lands, private lands, etc. This policy is yet to be formalised, though the Forest Department has offered to take direct charge of afforestation and tree conservation programmes instead…

Everyone agrees that Metro is an excellent mode of public transport. It improves connectivity and is good for the city. It is environmental-friendly. However, we have lost quite a number of trees at the time of Metro construction and we need to take some steps to regain the lost greenery. Most of Namma Metro is not underground. Bare metro pillars and beams have become an eyesore of our so-called Garden City. There have been news reports of BMRCL planning some vertical gardens, in which a huge metal frame holds a large number of small containers in which a variety of…

The Elders Helpline, a joint project of Nightingales Medical Trust (NMT) and the Bangalore City Police, is organising a road show and street plays in Bengaluru on June 15, 2018, to mark World Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention Day. The aim is to send out a clear message – that there should be an end to the abuse, assault, neglect and intimidation of the older generation. In India the population of elders is increasing substantially. In addition to various age-related disabilities, elders become an easy target for abuse and crimes. Elders suffer physical, emotional and financial abuses in silence. Elder…

Solving their civic-woes has been a challenge for the 12 lakh residents living in the 110 villages on the outer circle in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, in Bengaluru. Not only has the struggle to get drinking-water been unfruitful, the lack of drainage network lets the sewage accumulate in open drains and lakes, causing irreversible long-term ecological and health problems. There is, however, about to be a slight change in their plight. The infrastructural work to lay underground drainage facilities in the five zones — Mahadevapura, Byatarayanapura, Bommanahalli, Dasarahalli and RR Nagar — officially commenced on March 15,…

Gopinath P (35) grew up in extreme water scarcity, in Vijayanagar village in Bengaluru. This is an area located in Mahadevapura, a zone earmarked under the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP's) 110 villages project. “My mother travelled 4.5 kms by foot often to Immadihalli village, where certain rich zamindars had built borewells owing to favourable water tables,” Gopinath says. Carrying plastic-pots attached to her waist and head, she along with many other villagers of Vijayanagar traveled to faraway villages seeking water. Tankers go every fortnight to one cross. But if the water is over, a resident who is supposed to…

It has been a war between the animal lovers and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the last few days as the Palike proposed to limit the number of dogs that could be owned in residences. From online petitions to flooding the offices of the Animal Husbandry Department with letters and objections, pet lovers went on an overdrive to stop the administration on their tracks. #NotWithoutMyDog started appearing on social media, while people objected to not letting one person have more than one dog in apartments. The Palike has proposed among other things microchipping for the animals, penalty for not…