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Trees being felled or the remains of cut trees have sadly become an increasingly common sight in the garden city of Bangalore nowadays. Some of us have questioned, protested or expressed our indignation in various ways at these appalling and often baseless actions by the government. A few have tried to compensate this loss by planting trees elsewhere after ensuring feasibility. Such indiscriminate tree felling that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) 'authorities' have undertaken irked Vikram Simha, a well known Right to Information (RTI) activist in Bangalore with the Mahiti Hakku Adhyan Kendra (MHAK) and a lover of trees.…

Most of us know how difficult it is to work with government officials to get the works done. And works related to a social cause will take more time, energy and patience. But the following report makes all citizens to feel happy and ready to shower flowers on the officials who are quick in taking actions on matters related to the social causes brought up by the FORward150 active members. I congratulate all the officials who are directly and indirectly helped us in FORward150 intiatives. Water flow into the Ambalipura lake. Pic: Rajesh Rao. This is one of the biggest…

Beedhi Vyaaparigala Hakkotaya AndolanaA city level campaign of Street Hawkers, Dalits, Human Rights Activists, Social and Progressive OrganizationsEnd our evictions. They are unconstitutional and contrary to the National Street Vendors Policy Value our contributions to the society. Respect our fundamental rights. We demand legal cover and social securityThe past several months, we, the street hawkers of Bangalore, have been the victims of forcible eviction by the BBMP, the police and Muzrai departments who have undertake an aggressive and continuous exercise to ‘clear' the streets and pavements of Shivajinagar, Jayanagar, Ulsoor and Gandhinagar without giving us any prior notice or allocation…

As mentioned earlier in my article Skippers in your garden here the Lantana bush on Cookson Road in Richards Town, Bengaluru attracts a lot of butterflies and one of the most colourful one happens to be the Common Jezebel. The Common Jezebel feeding on the lantana flowers Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. The Common Jezebel Delias eucharis belongs to the family Pierdae which has among its members some of the most familiar of butterflies like Grass Yellows and Emigrants. The name butterfly is derived from members of this family which are predominantly white and yellow and are thus also known as "Whites…

From the 6th day of Navarathri, or Dashara, the festivities move into high gear. Everywhere, families have put up their "kolu" or "gombe", and women and children are busy visiting each others' homes. Here's the display at Bhuvana's home:The various dolls and scenarios symbolize the universe that we live in, which is protected by the Mother Goddess, Durga, from evil in the form of MahishAsur.Fancy rangolis decorate the doorways:Welcoming visitors into the homes. It's a festive,happy time for everyone....Happy Dashara, or Bijoya, or whatever festivity you may celebrating now! ⊕

One of the few surviving "circles" of Bangalore, which looks much the same way as it must have, when it was laid out, is the Ashoka Pillar in Jayanagar:It's one of the circles to have two names;"Mariyappa Rasthe":and "Ashoka Sthambha Vrittha":Shaded by trees all around, and bounded on one side by the wall of Lalbagh, it is a gracious landmark of Bangalore...still there, but who knows for how long! ⊕

Saw this awe-inspiring scene at Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens. Busy bee. Pic: Ravi Kaushik. The bee skipped from flower to flower and I had a tough time keeping up. No Image processing done.⊕

Trees, plants and shrubs are all important parts of the urban ecosystem. Without them there would be very little urban wildlife. It is impossible to separate the animal from its habitat and Bangalore has the privilege of having many varieties of flowering and non-flowering trees. These trees comprise of both native and non-native species that were introduced into the city. Some of these non-native trees have been in India for long that we take them to be native, some have adapted and flourished so well that we now call them ‘naturalised'. The Temple Tree. Pic: Vikram Nanjappa. The Frangipani ,…

They are everywhere...on the pavements, weaving in and out of the traffic at signals...people who sell a variety of known and unknown things...cotton buds, lights, windshield screens, remote control protectors, dusters.....The latest "item" to be sold is this "solar flower", which comes out with waving petals in sunlight: Most of these things are cheap, shoddy pieces, which, I feel, are made in China (ok, Taiwan, to be precise!)...and they are sold for a few dozen rupees...we seem not to mind the very poor quality of the stuff, and sometimes, it's our way of supporting the people who sell them.But I wonder…

Almost every other week, outside my office on Sarjapur Road, I see an elderly gentleman stopping by a tree in the morning, to relieve himself.  A Nirmala Shauchalaya stands barely 100 metres away from this recipient tree. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget ambitiously speaks about a lot that the city needs - storm water drains, flyovers, underpasses, parks, playgrounds - so on and so forth. A lot of criticism has gone the way of the budget, pooh-poohing the amount of loans that the corporation is planning to take and slamming the massive revenue projections. Plans have been made…