environment

From: angarika@maraa.in 2 manhole cleaners suffocated to death in Bangalore recentlyArmed with a bottle and a stick, a man descends: into the dark sulfurous depths of the city. Vanishing acts, made possible by the labour of workers who live and die below the surface. This man, we call the “scavenger”.Join us on 11th Oct for a walk, along the Chambers of Ward 88. To lift the lid and see who lurks beneath. The walk is olfactory. The walk is a provocation. The walk is a call to introspect. This walk will be guided by Angarika Guha and Ekta Mittal as part of Horaata,…

It’s a given that you should be drinking lots of water a day. Especially given air-conditioned offices, it becomes even more important to remember to drink – and have a bottle handy that’s easy to refill and keep sipping from. And from what we’ve seen, everyone uses plastic bottles! We don’t like those at all. Why? Read this. Or take a look at this. Clearly, even recycling is NOT a solution. It has to be stopped at the source of the demand – consumption! So we decided to do something about it. You’ve already seen we’ve been using these at our properties. They’re pretty popular…

Children from three branches of a play school visited the lake today, 26th Aug. 2013. They had been learning about birds and flowers from books and had come to see them in real.     The first excitement was an insect in the gazebo and then the walk began.      As if flowers in our garden, butterflies flitting everywhere and birds in the sky and water were not enough, the sight of the chicks of the Common Coot made the three year olds open their eyes even wider. A couple of slugs and a wriggling earthworm added to their…

Without much fanfare but certainly with a great deal of hope today afternoon we released the Salvinia weevil in two spots at the lake still infested with Salvinia Molesta. Salvinia weevils from Thrissur Releasing the weevils, 3rd June 2013 From the time Dr. Subramanya, UAS, Bangalore identified it last September, this invasive fern has been the bane of our lake. When the water level receded to mere puddles, the Salvinia began to dry in large tracts. We got it removed manually through BBMP's workers. Very many resident volunteers living around the lake pitched in strongly on several weekends. When it seemed…

A group of ecologists and experts including Dr M B Krishna, have come up with a report called"Ruining the ecology of Hesaraghatta Lake - the role of bird photographers. From the report's introduction:"The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and have been laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs."A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide…

Dr. S. Subrahmanya ("Subbu"), one of the very experienced naturalists/ornithologists of Bangalore, writes:Over the recent years, I have been campaigning for planting bird-friendly plants in gardens. In the process, based on my own observations, I have developed the concept of a 'Sunbird Corner' that can be adopted in sizable home gardens and public parks.This Sunbird Corner is developed on the concept that nectar available to sunbirds is in short supply and that habitually, individual sunbirds or pairs defend known sources of nectar yielding plants. Towards this, sunbirds tend to become territorial and ward-off any unwelcome `thieves'. Thus you can spend…

The horticulture department is planning a foodcourt at Nandi Hills. The proposed location is part of the habitat of Nilgiri Wood Pigeon. The plan is likely to have impact on this I do feel that Government can use the present buildings at Nandi Hills, some of which lie unused and abandoned. I request each of you to email the concerned people and voice your concern. I received an email from Subbu, an avid bird-watcher of Bangalore. This should come as a shocker to all those who love watching birds at Nandi Hills. The proposed food court on top of Nandi…

 I belong to a group of women, and we call ourselves BULBs...Bangalore Urban Lady-Birders. One of our favourite destinations to go birding (or bird-watching) is...Kommaghatta Lake (in Kengeri).Yesterday we went birding to Manchinabele Reservoir and several of us planned to go to Kommaghatta Lake this morning.One of us did visit...and found that the lake had...disappeared.Here's part of her message:"sorry for sending bad news your way so early, ....i reached the *erstwhile* kommaghatta lake and found no sign of it... I could hardly believe my eyes... the entire lake is GONE, disappeared, lake bed dredged up and big mounds lying all…