DATA

Rains this year caused extensive damage in some areas. Pic: BBMP Commissioner/Facebook Towards October end, we saw heavy rains in different parts of Bengaluru – predominantly in the south and southwest – which led to flooding of many low-lying areas. Those rains have now given way to pleasant sunny days with partly-cloudy skies. It almost feels like winter is here.  How have the rains been this year? Flooding episodes in the last few months seem to indicate rains were in excess, but were they?  Rainfall was indeed in excess, but also erratic  The Long Period Average(LPA) annual rainfall for Bengaluru is 986mm…

In the last few months, Bengaluru has seen rapid changes in its COVID tally. What's the current situation in the city? Are cases likely to reduce? Are death rates really reducing? Following are some key takeaways based on an analysis of data from the last few months. Number of positive cases per day has been decreasing Bengaluru seems to have hit the highest per-day cases on October 8, with 5121 cases. Since then, per-day case count has been on a decreasing trend. Considering previous seven days' average data, we reached the peak on October 12 and cases have been reducing…

Since the start of this year, there's been much discussion about the ‘Bangalore Surrounding Roads Project’, for which thousands of trees around the city would be axed. The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd (KRDCL) had proposed this road-widening project to decongest the city's peripheral roads, and to better link different parts of Bengaluru Urban and Rural to the Kempegowda International Airport. Six roads, spanning a total length of nearly 155 km, are to be widened for the project. Though these roads are mostly outside BBMP limits, the tree loss would have severe, long-lasting impacts for the city. But there's been…

Since COVID cases started surging in Bengaluru, we've heard of several reports of patients not finding hospital beds or being denied treatment. Most recently, even a COVID doctor at Chikkamudavadi PHC (Primary Health Centre) in Ramanagara district, Dr Manjunath S T, succumbed to the virus after being turned away by three Bengaluru hospitals. Despite this, the government has maintained that there are enough COVID beds in the city. Towards the end of June, government had ordered that half the beds in all private hospitals would be reserved for COVID patients. On July 7, Dr K Sudhakar, Minister of Medical Education,…

On March 9, Bengaluru reported its first COVID case, that of a software engineer with travel history to the US. Since then, the state government and BBMP have taken aggressive measures to contain virus spread. The Centre even recognised Bengaluru as a model city in COVID management. But since mid-June, the number of cases have rocketed, and now we are back to having another lockdown. What transpired between one case on March 9 to over 22,000 cases now? Here's a timeline of COVID cases in Bengaluru, and how the government has tried to tackle it. *Data is of Bengaluru Urban…

Having spent the first two months of the pandemic and nationwide lockdown in politicking, to first grab and then stay in power, the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-led BJP government has now launched a 15-day state-wide “Kill Corona” programme from July 1st. The programme includes door to door surveys in urban slums and low-income households having high population density and poor municipal management as a majority of positive cases in both cities have been reported from these areas. As per data from the government's smart city portal, Indore has the second highest slum population (30%) in the state, followed by Jabalpur (46%)…

"India is technically in stage 2," clarified Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry in a press briefing on March 30th. He was responding to speculation which had arisen from a MoHFW document which pegged India's current stage as "local transmission and limited community transmission phase." This came after a recent interview with the director of Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) by Quint, which had indicated the onset of stage 3. The speculation was cut short yet again, when AHPI released a statement on social media claiming that the Quint’s claim was misleading. The post also claimed that…

Varthur lake is the second-largest water body in Bengaluru. The 440-acre lake is located on the eastern periphery of the city, surrounded by villages and all the big IT companies. Over the last 20 years, a lot has changed and the lake has become infamous as one of the most polluted lakes in the city. From a pristine water body where people used to fish and bathe, it has now turned into a cesspool that froths and foams. It even catches fire! Concerned by the encroachment and degradation of the lake, residents came around to start a rejuvenation campaign. The…

The Central Finance Commission is a constitutionally mandated commission that has the key function of recommending how financial resources will be shared between the central governments and state governments, and between individual state governments.  It is constituted every five years, generally for a two year term, and is also required to make recommendations on strengthening financial resources of panchayats and municipalities (also known as urban local bodies). The Finance Commission’s terms of reference are drawn up by the central government, but its report is required to be tabled in Parliament. Generally the Finance Commission submits a single report sometime during Oct-Dec for five…

Pedestrians, as we know, are the most vulnerable road users. Over the past three years, Bengaluru has consistently seen the third highest number of pedestrian deaths among major Indian cities. Between 2010 and 2018, more than 3000 pedestrians have been killed in traffic crashes in the city, and four times as many have been injured. Many of these deaths could have been prevented had corrective measures been taken in a conscious and timely manner. But, beyond just the size of the problem, what do we know about pedestrian crashes happening in our city? Why and when do these crashes occur,…