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A battery of senior officials of the Bangalore Metro came to a Public Hearing called by Ranganathaswamy, Asst Conservator of Forests (Bangalore South) and Tree Officer of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. The officials came armed with power points demonstrating that the Metro is a major progress from ancient forms of transport. They showed pictures of how humans have made a transition from bullock carts to cycles, overloaded jeeps, buses, trains and onto the slick comfort of the Metro. They were, thus, attempting to make a case that the extension of the Metro lines on Kanakapura Road and Mysore Road involving…

A background Schools play an important role in keeping our environment clean. One important step in this process is educating students and the wider community about reducing the amount of resources consumed, so that we do not needlessly throw used material into garbage bins.  For this waste ultimately lands up in street corners, lakes, forests, outskirts of the city and in village grazing pastures and farmlands causing massive pollution and creating major public health hazards. While each of us can do a lot in making schools less wasteful, better results are achieved when the whole school makes a commitment to minimizing…

Various citizen groups get together to protest the construction of Mantri Apartments near Sankey lake. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni On Sunday morning, May 3rd, over 250 residents of Malleshwaram and Sadashivnagar area marched around the Sankey lake on the walking path, shouting slogans and holding placards, denouncing the Mantri Developers that is likely to constructed an apartment beside the lake and demanding that the Sankey lake be saved. Sankey Walkers association, Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative (MSI), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), Sadashivnagar Residents Welfare Association, Citizen’s Action Forum (CAF) and a number of other organisations came together to form a Save Sankey Forum…

Trees cut on Kanakpura Road (Pic: Environment support group) If you are a person who worries when the city starts flooding during rains as there is no room left for water to go, with storm water drains and lakes continuously being encroached, or one who worries about the environmental degradation happening in the city of Bangalore, this is your chance to stand up and say what you want. The Karnataka Department of Forests, Ecology and Environment has issued a circular, inviting the public to participate in the public consultation organised in Bangalore on September 27, 2014, by the High Level…

Panel discussion organised by CIVIC. Pic: Shree D N If what Minister for Urban Development, Karnataka, Vinay Kumar Sorake promised in a panel discussion held on July 11, 2014 materialises into concrete action, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) corporators cannot continue to rule the roost. Citizens will get more power and say in local matters, in the form of ward committees and area sabhas. The Minister promised to amend the section 13 of Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, to remove veto power over ward committees given to corporators. He also said he would look into amending the section to remove the…

File pic. Courtesy: Jayakrishnan On 21st April 2014, the Counsels of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) placed before the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna a compilation of tree planting activities in Bangalore. The document claims that during the years 2007-2013, the forest wing of the BBMP has planted 10,75,388 trees in the city and that on an average (across 6 years) 63.5% of the saplings have survived. The document was supplied as part of the suo moto proceedings initiated by the High Court in Writ Petition 7288/2011, responding to concerns over…

A dying lake in the city. File pic. In a significant decision, a Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka constituted by Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar and Justice B. Sreenivase Gowda ordered notice on Thursday (29/08/2013) to the state government.  The High Court bench asked S V Ranganath, IAS, Chief Secretary of the Government of Karnataka, as to why action should not be initiated as per Contempt of Court Act, 1971 for not complying with the directions of the Court in WP. 817/2008 (Environment Support Group and anr. vs. State of Karnataka represented by Chief Secretary and others), more than…

Help Survey Efficiency of Garbage Management in Bangalore   In light of the massive solid waste (garbage) management crisis in Bengaluru last year, the High Court of Karnataka in response to Public Interest Litigations by Environment Support Group and various individuals, directed the City and State authorities to adopt various clean up measures. In simple terms, the directions involved instituting a public education campaign to ensure segregation of waste at source became mandatory, that biodegradable waste would be locally composted, recyclable waste recovered, and only inert waste sent to landfills. In addition, the whole process was decentralised and Ward Committees…

Leo Saldanha is a full-time Coordinator of Bangalore-based Environment Support Group. He is an expert in the areas of Environmental Law and Policy, Decentralisation, Urban Planning and a variety of Human Rights and Development-related issues, working across many sectors for over a decade. He is a keen campaigner on critical environmental and social justice issues and has guided several campaigns demanding evolution of progressive laws and effective action. He has supported various distressed communities to secure justice through public interest litigations and advocacy efforts. He has argued as party in person several public interest litigations, many of which have resulted…

Trees are as much a part of urban infrastructure and planning as roads and buildings, and most town and country planning acts worldwide include well thought-out provisions to nurture and protect trees. But Bangalore had clearly not been in sync, as was evident from the conclusions at a recent meeting of the Environment Support Group (ESG) on the 26th of January, 2013.The meeting included people from various backgrounds - students, professionals, civic representatives and had been convened with a view to seeking public opinion and consent to amend the KPTA (Karnataka Tree Preservation Act, 1976). Among those attending were D…