City: Bengaluru

What should Bengaluru - institutions and its citizens - do in the immediate run and the long run, considering the Cauvery dispute and the limits to water scenario? Just remember that only a third among us, or maybe half, are in the Cauvery basin, the rest are not part of the Water Tribunal process. This city has been built on a ridge and in the basin of two rivers, though many of us may not even be able to name the rivers into which Bengaluru empties its sewage. Consider this – we are pumping 1400 million litres of water per…

On Monday, (September 12 2016) as I was watching the prime-time news on Kannada TV channels, my child walked in. Sitting beside me, she watched the televised show of miscreants vandalising various places. Suddenly she exclaimed: 'Ammaa!' The TV showed the vandals ransacking an Adyar Anand Bhavan outlet, probably on Mysore Road. She asked me, 'Amma, so there won't be Adyar Anand Bhavan anymore?' I reassured her, 'Yes there will be. These are all temporary problems. Malleshwaram's A2B is intact, so you don't need to worry.' A2B is her favourite hotel and has been a lifesaver for us on the…

Another year, another bandh. It feels like 1991 all over again. Those empty roads, those days of being at home on weekdays, having to converse with parents in Kannada outside home. But yes, 1991 was definitely worse. There was news of people moving back to Tamil Nadu weeks before the final order. There was a build up. When the final verdict came and cities erupted, there was a sense of inevitability to it. Then there were shoot-at-sight orders and cops milling in front of the house in Chamarajpet. We camped on the terrace, more curious than worried – at 11 you had a…

Water shortage has been a matter of serious concern in Bengaluru.  While the city contributes about 50% of the state’s GDP, this problem, if not corrected timely, could seriously threaten the revenues of the state government and the IT/BT investment that the city has been able to attract.  The population of Bengaluru is also increasing substantially. As against a population of 85 lakhs in 2011, it is expected to be around 188 lakhs by 2030, which will further exacerbate the city’s water supply woes. What’s the scenario in Bengaluru?  The piped water supplied by the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewage…

It was an enlightening thing to go through the vitriol and acrimony of the messages during the bandh, and in the last few days.   As someone whose family has been in farming, I urge all of you to think about supporting farmers every day of the year. The easiest and most effective way to do so is by eating local produce -- from millets to leafy greens to gourds. Traditionally, native grains and vegetables have been varieties that have used very little water to grow, and are extremely healthy for us. Our state's cuisine include staples like ragi and…

BBMP has come up with clear guidelines to manage solid waste generated during festivals. After Ganesha Chaturti, BBMP has geared up for Bakrid. Top officials and department heads including Mayor Manjunath Reddy and Commisioner Manjunath Prasad met in late August and have finalised the arrangements. Awareness and enforcement No slaughter can be carried out in public areas - roads, footpaths in areas outside the homes or shop in public view. Only animals in the permissible list can be slaughtered. Segregation at source is compulsory. Health Inspectors and Medical Officers will supported by volunteers have been reaching out to the various…

We launched the crowdsourced Blackspot Mapping Project (garbage dump mapping project) in the last week of August, 2016. Two weeks into the project, we are already nearing 200 spots. As we reached out to people for help, we also faced many questions: Why are you doing this? What’s the intent? What will this data be used for? So many apps to map garbage and other issues - why should we contribute data to this project? In this article, we try to explain it all in detail. Why are you doing this? What’s the intent? Our cities suffer from multiple problems.…

Traffic congestion in ORR is getting worse - the long term solution is moving more and more commuters to mass public transport like the Metro or  BRTS. While the jury is out on which is better and faster to implement, we are losing precious time everyday in our commute. With the intention to reduce the commute time and avoid stress in waiting at traffic signals,  Rao Ganesh Janardhan, HSR Traffic Police Inspector has put together a series of simple changes which can improve the traffic flow from Marathahalli till Central Silk Board. The first of such changes have been implemented around…

Sometimes dry, barren-seeming patches of land have so much of interest in them. Recently, my friend Manivannan S spotted, in a small empty lot, this Painted Grasshopper. The wiki entry on this gorgeous-looking creature says that the grasshopper feeds on the poisonous plant Calotropis gigantea. Certainly, these grasshoppers had stripped all the Calatropis (milkweed) plants nearby. Striking in appearance... The mature grasshopper has canary yellow and turquoise stripes on its body, green tegmina with yellow spots, and pale red hind wings. The wiki also mentions the interesting fact that these grasshoppers, when squeezed or handled, upon slight pinching of the…

‘Swacch Bharat!’ We have seen a lot of hype about this programme in media but what is the reality? Of course, many things are happening in little pockets around the country, about which we read or hear. It does give us some hope that some day, maybe after half a century, we may see some difference at least in certain localities. However, as an individual, my experience has been a bit disappointing. Firstly, the once beautiful garden city of Bengaluru is turning into a city of concrete, garbage, polluted water bodies and chaos at a very fast pace!  Cleaning up…