City: Bengaluru

‘Stay safe’ is now a stock phrase. Everyone uses it when signing off an email, chat or conversation. Yet another term that has gained currency is ‘bubble’. A bubble is a safe environment where social networks follow a shared set of norms to keep everyone there safe. The pandemic has led to heightened safety concerns, and in turn created awareness around behaviours that can likely protect us from COVID. It is time we did the same with fire safety! A culture of safety is one that is cultivated daily, and only strengthened during an emergency. At a recent webinar conducted…

During the first week of June 2021, the daily bulletin from the Department of Health and Family Welfare(DHFW), Karnataka, was still reporting 300+ COVID deaths per day for Bengaluru Urban district. The corresponding daily positives was around 3500-4000. The general feeling was that the worst was over and things had eased up. But these numbers suggested otherwise, a fatality rate of close to 10%! A closer look at the "DOD" (Date of Death) column of Annexure-2 of the bulletins, however, showed that a lot of these 300+ COVID deaths were being back-counted from May, and some even from April. For…

For 15 years Sheela (name changed), a domestic worker, had been in the service of a single household, till the 2020 lockdown, when her employer left town and stopped answering her calls. She currently works at another house, earning less than half of what she used to. Caught up in bad loans, her husband died by suicide in November 2019 leaving her as her family's sole earner. The centrally sponsored Widow Pension scheme is erratic and unreliable, forcing her to search for other income sources. As a mother of two, Sheela has three mouths to feed, bills and fees to…

Genome sequencing for Delta Plus variant A 57-year-old from Nandini Layout tested positive for the Delta variant of coronavirus. He is the primary contact of his 86-year-old father, who was infected with the variant earlier this month. No additional cases of the variant have been reported from Bengaluru so far. BBMP has decided to start genome sequencing to ascertain if the Delta Plus variant of COVID is present in the city. Samples from 5% of COVID patients would be sent for genome sequencing. BBMP officials will also keep a close watch on wards with a higher positivity rate. The government…

Solid waste management is the gordian knot of urban issues deeply embedded in the larger contexts of consumerism, informal livelihoods, urban ecology, public health, and the political economy of urban development. The question of managing urban waste involves legal, political, economic and social challenges spanning urban infrastructure, technical and human capacities, workers’ safety and welfare, cooperation with local government and citizens, planning, public health, climate change preparedness and sustainable development. Vidhi’s documentary ‘Garbage Matters’ highlights the mounting problem of disposal of municipal waste in Delhi, the implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, and various judicial interventions on the issue.…

The Cauvery Stage V project, once commissioned, is supposed to solve the water crisis in Bengaluru's peripheral areas. Though the project is supposed to be completed by 2023, as we saw in part 1 of this series, work on many components of the project has only just started. At the same time, many apartments in these areas have not been applying to Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) for new Cauvery water connections. In this part, we explore why. SJR Watermark apartment in Ambalipura, along Haralur main road, off Sarjapura Road, is one such apartment that hasn't applied for…

Bengaluru's peripheries - the 110 villages that were added to the city in 2008 - have long depended on private tankers for water supply. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had promised them water supply by 2023 through its Cauvery Stage V project. Cauvery Stage V project aims to bring in an additional 775 MLD (Million Litres per Day) water from river Cauvery into Bengaluru city. As per the final project report in 2017, the total demand for the 110 villages was calculated to be 350 MLD as of 2024. The report says demand is expected to go…

With COVID, lockdowns, unemployment, heartbreaking journeys of migrant workers back to their villages, news of illness and death making headlines every morning, this year has taken its toll on all of us. Hunkered down in our houses, distanced from family, friends and colleagues, we had few reasons for cheer. But even amid this seemingly incessant gloom, we found some inspiration from the citizen engagement and impact that we saw in several spheres. Though the government failed us consistently and abysmally, warriors among us arose to take control of the situation. Men and women across the country organized toolkits, Twitter drives…

Bengaluru’s water woes are not a secret to anyone, all thanks to the city’s water activists and environmentalists who have fought tooth and nail to promote Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) and sustainable water management in the city. Two well known names campaigning for water sustainable are Vishwanath Srikantaiah and Shubha Ramachandran, both from the Biome Environmental Trust. Vishwanath is a water activist and an urban planner. He has worked in collaboration with the local communities to revive 10,000 wells with the support of the well-diggers, and helped in the development of 100,000 recharge wells. Shubha is a water sustainability expert. She…

6,316 trees to be axed to revive lake Residents and activists are angered by the Karnataka Forest Department seeking public consultation to cut 6,316 trees. The trees are to be felled so as to rejuvenate the Singanayakanahalli lake, as part of the Hebbal-Nagawara valley project. Forest department officials say most of these trees are Jaali Mara (Prosopis Juliflora), but activists say there are Acacia and Pongame oil trees (Honge Mara) trees too. And that the habitat houses peacocks that belong to Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, along with foxes, snakes, birds and other animals. Activists point out…