City: Bengaluru

Imagine you’re out on a morning walk, phone in hand, when you spot a butterfly you’ve never seen before. You snap a photo, log it into a citizen science app, and voila! You’ve just contributed to crucial biodiversity monitoring. This isn’t just a hobby; it’s part of a global movement where ordinary people collect, record, and sometimes analyse data about plants, animals, and ecosystems. Citizen science stretches the reach of ecological research. Every observation adds to unique longitudinal datasets that reveal phenology — periodic events in the life cycle of a species — along with species distribution shifts and population…

The street dogs issue continues to spark discussion across Indian cities, without a sustainable and humane solution in sight. While the problem of dog bites may be  real, it is also important to be pragmatic, preemptive and protect frontline workers in the animal welfare sector by dealing with its greatest potential downside, head on.   A simple, cost-effective intervention is to mandate or strongly encourage annual Rabies Virus Neutralising Antibody (RVNA) titre testing for all animal welfare workers. This not only protects them from rabies but it also enhances public health resilience against the fatal disease, at minimal expense. Bengaluru is…

Bengaluru is often described as having “better air” than North Indian cities, yet new evidence shows this perception may be misleading. Data from 40 low‑cost air quality sensors set up by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) reveal sharp variations in pollution across time and place, patterns that citywide averages completely miss. In this interview, Abhishek Penchala, Senior Analyst in CSTEP’s Air Quality team, tells Citizen Matters how hyperlocal monitoring uncovers hidden pollution hotspots, from waste burning to construction dust and traffic, that the sparse official network fails to detect, forcing us to rethink how urban…

TMN Deepak, a professor of social work who has a physical disability, commutes from Velachery to Loyola College in Chennai for work every day. He owns a wheelchair cum scooter that allows him to cover short distances comfortably, but he avoids public transport. “Instead, I have had to go for an automatic car, which has increased my overall spend, and I had to shell out an additional ₹2.5 lakh for modifications,” he says. Deepak's monthly petrol costs exceed ₹6,000. “I prefer not to use the bus because of inaccessibility,” he explains, highlighting how the lack of accessible public transport forces…

I have been following the K100 stormwater drain (SWD) project for some time and had loosely worked on it in the past. Once neglected, this stretch from Majestic to Bellandur Lake has gradually been transformed into a critical part of the neighbourhood’s civic infrastructure. As I have a theoretical understanding of what Bengaluru’s stormwater drains are intended to do and why they matter, a citizen audit of the K200 SWD held on January 31st felt like a chance to move beyond theory and see things up close. The proposed audit focused on a stretch of the K200 running from HSR…

Editor’s Note: This article is the third in a three-part series.Part 1: Bengaluru’s Peripheral Ring Road: Two decades on, who really benefits?Part 2: Peripheral Ring Road: Bengaluru farmers allege unfair payouts threaten their future Two decades after the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) was announced, the project is far from completion. For farmers, it has meant years of uncertainty and mounting financial losses, while residents remain unsure about the usefulness of the long-pending road development. In an earlier article, we explored how the PRR project could lead to forced migration and threaten the livelihoods of farmers. In Part 2 of the…

Editor’s Note: This article is the second of a three-part series.Part 1: Bengaluru’s Peripheral Ring Road: Two decades on, who really benefits?Part 3: Bengaluru’s Peripheral Ring Road: Traffic relief or ecological disaster? The Peripheral Ring Road project, once announced as a development that could benefit farmers, has, over time, turned into a burden. In a recent article, we examined how the project may lead to the displacement of farmers. The project, delayed for almost two decades and now rebranded as the Bengaluru Business Corridor, has caused farmers and landowners considerable suffering. Unable to sell or mortgage their lands, some landowners…

Stormwater drains are not just “invisible infrastructure.” They are the frontline of Bengaluru’s water security. When they fail, lakes die, groundwater gets poisoned, and neighbourhoods flood. Understanding this system is the first step toward reclaiming it, because without citizen awareness, the crisis remains hidden beneath our feet. In an earlier article, we explored how stormwater drains are the frontline of Bengaluru’s water security. Part 2 of the series shows how citizens can take action themselves by learning the typology of drains and conducting audits using simple tools. Accountability gaps in Bengaluru’s stormwater worksOver the years, Bengaluru’s SWD network has been…

Every summer, Bengaluru’s water crisis makes headlines; tanker prices soar, lakes dry up, and citizens protest encroachments, fish kills, and sewage inflows. While lakes and tanks often dominate the conversation, there’s another hidden system that quietly shapes the city’s water story: stormwater drains (SWDs). These drains are more than just channels; they are the veins of a valley city. Bengaluru sits on a central ridgeline that naturally divides its water flow into two directions: Eastward: draining into the Dakshina Pinakini (Ponnaiyar) River. Westward: draining into the Cauvery Basin via the Vrishabhavathi River. Ironically, what citizens often see as footpaths or…

Editor's Note: This article is part of a three-part series. Part 2: Peripheral Ring Road: Bengaluru farmers allege unfair payouts threaten their futurePart 3: Bengaluru’s Peripheral Ring Road: Traffic relief or ecological disaster? Krishna Ramesh, a farmer from Kachamaranahalli village, 21 km from the centre of Bengaluru, has lived under the shadow of a land acquisition notice since 2007. His five acres, the only land he owns, are among 2,558 acres notified for the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, now rebranded as the Bengaluru Business Corridor. The land sustains his family, yielding over ₹1 lakh a month. If the Bangalore…