City: Bengaluru

Bengaluru has much to offer. That much is clear even to someone who is new to the city. Normally, if you plan to visit all of the major sightseeing locales available, it would take several trips. The Bangalore Rounds bus service makes it easy to condense a planned excursion into a single day-trip for those without much time. It’s the equivalent of marathoning a favorite TV show on Netflix, but instead you can experience sunshine, learn more about the history of the city, and revel in the amazing architectural designs. Although it’s unlikely you’ll be able to visit every landmark…

Heaps of garbage piled in Mandur. Pic: Shree D N If you see the above scene in Mandur that is the ugly backyard of namma Bengaluru, what strikes you as the most important waste category? Most of what you see is plastic. This is the reality that you see even in the garbage dump near your home. Well, what’s wrong with that? Plastic bags make carrying everything simple, with their light weight and ease of use. After use, just throw them, and they’re out of sight and mind. Easy, isn’t it? But then, here are some issues for you to…

High Court of Karnataka (HC) suggested that BBMP make payments for tree-planting contracts only after monitoring the survival rate of the seedlings for an year after planting, to ensure that the seedlings planted are protected and maintained. In a suo motu PIL (WP No. 7288/2011) filed by former justice D V Justice Shylendra Kumar for  mass tree felling in Jayamahal Palace road in 2011 for widening the road, BBMP Advocate Subramanya R informed the court that the afforestation tenders for this year have already been awarded. Amicus curiae Vaishali Hegde pointed that the agreements that are already signed for this…

We were having one of those Saturday nights, where we had a big group of people (from the Quora meetup) who decided to get out for a drink with last minute plans. As expected, we didn't really get a table in most bars and since we were a big group, we were desperate for a bar that seated us. Walking down Church Street in Bengaluru, a friend spotted Alibi, the restobar and it seemed like they had a few tables that would accommodate a large group. My friends and I had a decent time for about the first two hours…

Ever-increasing traffic adds to pollution and emission. File pic. It is difficult to choose between a hot dry summer day and the day after a nice shower in Bengaluru, when it comes to the concentration of pollutants in the air. On a hot day, the air currents disperse the pollutants high up into the atmosphere, while on a day after the showers, because of the increase in humidity levels the fumes from vehicle exhaust pipes remain closer to ground level. In Bangalore, several environmental issues have attained the status of omnipresent and instead of figuring out a solution to mitigate…

In a symphony of horns and beeps, cars, buses and motorcycles bullet past the populated Springfields apartment complex, the enormous Wipro campus, and the multitude of schools that dot the famous Sarjapur Road. It turns from a mellow street at night into a hub of pandemonium we witness during the day. Narrow and long, it stretches on for kilometers, providing access to thousands of residential complexes and immense corporate offices. Smaller streets branch out of the main spine of Sarjapur Road like tributaries, spreading to Electronic City and Marathahalli. As it trails away from Bangalore city, it dissolves into the…

Lobbying with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to fix your road should not be fundamentally a different experience from shopping for a car. After all, you paid your taxes; you are simply asking for the tax money to come back to your locality. You pay for your car, you take it. You pay your taxes, you get your road. But it ain’t so in Bengaluru. Once you pay your taxes, power transfers to the government. That’s fine, if we have a benevolent dictatorship, but what we have is an incompetent corruptocracy (if there’s such a word). Thus speaking to…

Residents of HSR Layout and surroundings n Bengaluru objected to the construction of sewage treatment plant (STP) on Agara lake bed, proposed by Lake Development Authority and supported by the MLA of Bommanahalli, Satish Reddy. Agara lake is situated off Sarjapur Road, and is not a part of any lake chain. A public meeting was conducted by Lake Development Authority (LDA) to inform people about their plan to rejuvenate Agara lake with treated water on the lines of Jakkur lake. However, the members of the Agara Lake Protection and Management Committee (ALPMC) were apprehensive about this plan. The agenda of…

As an immediate remedy for daily wet waste generated in Bengaluru, Additional Chief Secretary of Urban Department of Karnataka (UDD) D Satya Murty submitted to the High Court of Karnataka (HC) on Thursday, June 26, 2014, that portable processing units with the capacity of 50 tonnes will soon be installed in 15 to 20 wards. However, the bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice N Kumar observed that processing units in 15 to 20 wards will not be sufficient when Bangalore has 198 wards. Murty submitted to the court that the government is keen on solving the garbage problem…

You are in a newly constructed large apartment community or in an individual house, and you don’t know where to send your garbage. Throwing it on to the streets is illegal, and you are a nice person who wouldn’t do it. You have a solution now : igotgarbage.com (IGG). An initiative of Information Technology company Mindtree, in association with Hasirudala, Saahas Zero Waste, Daily Dump and other stakeholders who manage IT city’s waste, IGG connects the waste collectors who dispose it responsibly, to waste generators who want to see their waste managed responsibly. Prashant Mehra, project manager of IGG does…