City: Bengaluru

2021 saw Bengaluru’s public healthcare systems totally collapsing in the face of the second wave of COVID-19. What could the city have done better? What needs to change? In this article, public health researcher Adithya Pradyumna puts out his wishlist for public healthcare in the city for the new year. Adithya is a co-author of the report ‘Health Care Equity in Urban India’, published this December. The report was based on a project undertaken this year by Adithya and his colleagues from Azim Premji University, which also included a case study of Bengaluru. Urban healthcare in India is generally messy.…

Karnataka usually receives southwest monsoon from June to September, and then the northeast monsoon from October to December. Any depression in the Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal can also cause additional rainfall. But in the recent past, rainfall patterns have been inconsistent and we are seeing a higher number of extreme rainfall events. Rains this year have thrown life out of gear in many parts of the State, including Bengaluru. This calendar year, Bengaluru Urban district has received rainfall of 1128 mm to date. This is an excess of over 30% of the normal annual rainfall of 843…

10 new Omicron cases With 10 new Omicron cases from Bengaluru, the State's tally of the variant has come up to 31. Among the Bengaluru patients, five had travel history to the United Kingdom, one had returned from Denmark, and another person from Nigeria. The three others from Bengaluru did not have a travel history, and their contact with an international traveller is being looked into. On Thursday, Bengaluru Urban reported 210 COVID cases and one death. On Wednesday, the government directed health officials, deputy commissioners and district surveillance officials to track, trace and quarantine primary and secondary contacts of COVID patients.…

Until a few years ago, Bengaluru used to dump all of its waste in landfills outside the city. While villagers living around the landfills faced serious health conditions, there was garbage dumped and burnt within the city as well, affecting the health of its residents. But now, the majority of the waste from residential households is getting segregated and processed. The 2Bin1Bag initiative was key to popularising waste segregation in Bengaluru households, especially in apartments. 2Bin1Bag showed that all that households had to do was segregate waste into three categories - wet waste in a green bin, reject/sanitary waste in…

I recently visited my parents in Patna where their Indie-dog Julie had given birth to 8 pups. Unlike Bengaluru, Patna has limited facilities for pet care - vaccination, sterilisation, and adoption, so My brother and I decided to get them back to Bengaluru with me. We travelled with the pups by train - Here are the learnings from that experience. Travelling long distances with your furry companion can be daunting, especially if it is the first time. Advance preparations help. Before you begin your journey, take your pet to the veterinarian to make sure it is fit to travel, as…

TAC recommends low-key New Year A report of the state COVID TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) has recommended subdued New Year celebrations this year, to keep stable the present daily reporting of about 300 COVID cases and TPR of 0.4%. It suggested prohibitions of gatherings or celebrations in pubs, restaurants, clubs on major roads, malls and other public places, especially at Church Street, MG Road, Brigade Road and parallel roads. Night curfew from December 30 to January 2 (7 pm to 5 am) has been recommended. However, the report said that regular activities and business could continue. Wherever needed, IPC Section…

I had just spent a wonderful evening with friends on Residency Road, one mid-January evening this year. At the time, the world was between waves of the pandemic, but one could sense that people wanted to be out in the world again, meeting people, shopping, traveling. I was undoubtedly one of them. So here I was, returning home as I had always done before the pandemic hit, in an auto-rickshaw at 9 p.m. I was scrolling through social media on the phone, unaware of just how much the world around me had changed. But to be on the safer side,…

“Lakes are like the organs and rajakaluve, or the storm water drains that connect them, are like nerves. Organs will not survive without the nerves,” says Captain Santhosh Kumar, an army veteran who has been volunteering towards identifying and restoring storm water drains and lakes of Bengaluru. Read more: 50% stormwater drains lost: Bengaluru’s flooding is no surprise It all started when Kumar, a military intelligence officer hung up his boots and returned to his native village Anekal in Bengaluru urban district, in 2008. He was shocked when he saw the villagers struggle for water while the water mafia pumped the…

In April, 2020, Usha Rajagopalan, Chairperson, Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT), had sent — like she always did since 2011 — the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to be renewed, fully expecting it to come through. “Later, in June, I realized that the MoU was not renewed and the other citizen-led lake groups had the same experience,” says Usha.  BBMP has been signing MoUs with lake groups since 2011. Usha says: “The MoU states that we do not charge any entry fees or undertake commercial activity such as selling the lake water to…

MLC polls Polling for two Legislative Council seats - one each from Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts - was held on Friday. Overall, the biennial elections are being held in 25 seats across the state, with 90 candidates in the fray. Results will be declared on December 14. With declared assets of Rs 1,744 crore, Yousuf Sharief, Congress candidate from Bengaluru Urban, is the richest candidate in the state. There is no expenditure limit for candidates in this election, unlike in case of assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Source: The Times of India, India.com, The New Indian Express Vegetable…