Category: Civic

At Bengaluru’s first Dry Waste Collection Centre (DWCC) in Domlur, heaps of waste in segregated piles dominate the landscape. Drivers of collection vehicles and waste pickers work through the piles, segregating waste in challenging conditions. These centres were established to promote decentralised waste management and improve the livelihood of waste workers. Yet, a decade later, waste pickers continue to struggle without formal employment status, volatile resale prices for recyclable waste, a shortage of quality waste and fragile job security. Workers at the Domlur DWCC come from various backgrounds. For some, waste picking is a generational occupation — A Krishna, the…

In August this year, over 2,000 sanitation workers from Central and North Chennai staged a peaceful protest against the Greater Chennai Corporation's (GCC) decision to privatise waste management services in Zones 5 and 6. Their demonstration was met with force and allegations of police brutality, just one day before Independence Day. Sanitary workers protest against the privatisation of waste management in zones 5 and 6 in Chennai. Pic courtesy: Sakthivel/Vyasai Thozhargal Over the years, GCC has outsourced solid waste management to private firms in 13 out of its 15 zones. The latest was in June this year, which approved the…

On June 28th, Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT), the first citizens' collective in Bengaluru to formally maintain a lake, celebrated its 15th anniversary. Puttenahalli lake, also called Puttakere because of its relatively small size, was waste-ridden and nearly dry in the 2000s. In 2008, Usha Rajagopalan, writer and resident of an apartment near the lake, launched a campaign to revive it. Other interested residents in the area soon joined in, and they formally registered themselves as PNLIT. Their first major success came in 2010 when BBMP started reviving the lake in response to their campaign. The next year, PNLIT…

Nestled within the sprawling 350-acre built-up township of Hiranandani Estate lies a 2.46-hectare (approximately six acres) gem. The Kavesar Lake, the last remaining “natural” wetland in Thane, is an ancient freshwater body formed naturally due to surface undulations and lies near a saltwater creek.   A single visit to Kavesar Lake is enough to leave one mesmerised by its natural beauty, biodiversity and inexplicable positive energy which soothes the body, calms the mind and uplifts the soul. The villagers who have lived in its vicinity for generations have revered the Kavesar Lake habitat as a ‘Devrai’ (sacred grove). The lake is…