City: Bengaluru

Nobody wants to take mixed waste, yet Bengaluru is sitting on quite a huge quantity of it. Pic: Shree D N Heaps of unsegregated waste mixed with reject waste such as styrofoam plates and low value plastic lie unattended in the infamous backyard of Malleshwaram, that is 11th main. Some residents raised a hue and cry against Malleshwaram turning into a mini Mandur, even as the BBMP officials and contractors were figuring out how to handle the situation. This was the scene on 9th April, in Malleshwaram. It has been little over three months since the BBMP announced strict penalty…

On the March 13th, we went to Arekere Reserve Forest (aka Doresanipalya) and while there, we found this baby Black Kite, badly injured, upon the ground. It was so badly off that it could not even clamber to its feet as it lay there in the grass clutter. It was heart-rending to watch the poor little one look at us with terrified, mute appeal. But alas! Very often, one cannot follow up on one’s emotional impulse to intervene in wildlife... whether in urban or forest areas. In this case, the very fact that it was so immobile told me that…

  Bengaluru this week April  7th 2016     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     We’re glad to report that our Journalism Workshop went well. Around 40 citizens came forward to understand city issues and learn to use journalism to share their ideas and experiences. We also managed to raise some funds for the journalism published on Citizen Matters. But what really has us over the moon is that there are so many active citizens keen on doing their bit for a better Bengaluru. A big thanks to all the participants. Click here for…

Elevated road on Hosur road. Pic. source : skyscrapercity.com What's the problem? Work commute is taking a hit with traffic congestion on the roads increasing. Since the problem is on the road, the solution has been to increase it and remove perceived obstructions like signals, pedestrians etc from the line of sight of the car to increase speed. One can draw an analogy to an obese person taking on too much comfort food because it feels good and now he/she needs bigger pants. He/she fails to notice that this is potentially fatal in the long run with illness and diseases…

Malleshwaram market. Pic: Manu H S Heggodu Following the success of green festival celebrations like Ugadi and Bakrid in Yelahanka zone last year, the BBMP along with citizen groups has this year given a call for Green Ugadi celebrations across the city. The idea is to ensure that the wet waste generated during Ugadi does not get mixed up with dry waste and is collected and composted separately. To make this work, citizen volunteers are deployed in each ward who will take up the work of supervising and collecting wet waste in their respective wards. Interested to be a volunteer?…

Government of India has kept a major step towards sustainable waste management, by making it mandatory to segregate waste at source. According to a Press Information Bureau press note, the new waste management rules are stricter than the rules notified in the year 2000. Exerpts from the press note: The Environment Ministry has revised Solid Waste Management Rules after 16 years. Addressing a press conference to announce the revised Rules on April 5, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar said that the Rules are now applicable beyond municipal areas and will extend to…

As Bangaloreans, if there is one thing that we love talking about, it is our traffic problems and lack of good infrastructure. The problem has become so bad, that we the citizens of Bangalore took to the streets in protest via Whitefield Rising and ORR-Sarjapur Rising. The result? The authorities took notice — small step, yes, but it worked. It is about time that the authorities fix these problems and work with the citizens who have come forward to collaborate with them... This is an opportunity not to be missed. At the same time, it is up to us as…

Recently, we visited Arthipura near Kokkare Bellur to visit the archeological excavation site of ancient Jaina vestiges. I read news reports about this site so thought of visiting. I was sure that my family would not get bored, because they had really enjoyed our last visit to Keeladi, another archaeological site near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, where ASI unearthed remains of 2,200 to 2,300 year old houses and artifacts. Arthipura is a small village near Maddur in Mandya district. It is located 5 km south of Kokkare Bellur. It has two small hillocks, Shravanabetta and Chikkabetta or Kanakagiri.  Last year, archaeologists from ASI Bangalore…

Bengaluru lets its sewage into valleys, rivers and lakes. Little sewage is processed, while much of it is unprocessed in nature. Navin, a villager from K Channasandra, believes that the Maragondanahalli Lake is the savior for the villagers and their animals. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan Rampura Valley is one of the valley systems of Bengaluru in the north east of the city. This valley gets a mix of treated and untreated water from the raja kaluve (storm water drain) sewage treatment plant, which has 40 MLD capacity and uses Extended Aeration Process. The wastewater from north-eastern parts of Bangalore flows into…

Lawrence, in his late 30s, is seeing the world with the curious eyes of a child. As he looks around, he wonders how the world has changed and how different it looks. “The value of money is no more the same. In 1990s, I used to spend a good whole week with just Rs 100 in the pocket. Now everyone talks in thousands and lakhs. Strange!” he exclaims. In the last 19 years of his life, Lawrence was completely cut off from society — he had spent nearly two decades of his life languishing behind bars. Convicted in a murder…