GENRE: In Focus

Worldwide, a staggering four to five trillion plastic shopping bags are used every year. Most are discarded after a single use. Like all other plastics, the bags too are made from fossil fuels and are popular because they are durable, cheap, strong and lightweight. But these very characteristics are also what make them a problem. Plastic bags take extremely long to degrade: estimates range from 100 to 1000 years. Which means that all the plastic bags ever manufactured are potentially still around in the environment. And that is a problem. 'Biodegradable' plastic bags have been adopted by a local retail…

As parents, most of us want the world for our children; the right school, good manners, quality toys and the best of books. But few of us would probably do what Richa and Tarun Jain did for their daughter Suhani. Inspired by her willingness to learn, read and explore more, they set up Mindgym, a library for children! Out of the Box library (pic: Reshmi Chakraborty) As is with children, Suhani too would soon get bored of her new toys and books before moving on to other things. It led Richa and Tarun to talk to friends and come up…

The residential hub of Jayanagar was once known for its nurseries. But where have all those nurseries gone today? Is the era of neighbourhood nursery over? Asha Nursery, Jayanagar 1st block (pic: Vaishnavi Vittal) As you take the one-odd kilometre walk from Siddapura all the way up to NIMHANS, you can see a number of nurseries on your way, interspersed with buildings and houses. But, if you were taking a stroll down that path five years ago, all you could see were nurseries. The nurseries took up more than 200 acres of land then. But today the number has dwindled…

The BMTC is launching the Kendriyasarige, a bus service that will serve Bengaluru's central business district, and the Big 10 service that will be a direct route connecting 10 major roads in the city to the outer ring roads. The BMTC has adopted some of the suggestions given in the ABIDe report on transport and has taken the initiative to apply them even before the government asks them to do so. "The new launches are definitely going to benefit public transport system, thus, the earlier we do it the better it is," says P S Sandhu, Director, BMTC. He thinks…

Some like it mapped For Design Engineer Ashok Vasudevan, using a mobile phone to tell you which route to take is a nuisance. Ashok prefers using a map. Yes, how can one forget the good ol' map? How many of us have even used a map apart from our geography classes in school? Ashok says, "I'm crazy about maps. I use the Eicher map. It's easy to use as it first provides a complete map of Bangalore in two pages which is then divided into several numbered parts. These parts are then magnified in subsequent pages. It's a handy tool…

Urban families are always on the lookout for a great bargain. Power bills account for a considerable percentage of the monthly household budget, and one such gadget that can cut down the same is the gas geyser. The gas geyser has a simple mechanism to heat water for bathing purposes - the LPG gas outlet is connected to an enclosed burner which heats the inlet water, giving hot water in few seconds. Gas Geyser, Chinese make (Pic: Divya Sharma) It takes just 3-5 minutes to fill a big bucket with hot water. However, this simple tool can turn a killer…

The conflict between preserving the environment and providing housing for the masses is age old. Whether it is an urban sprawl or a concrete megalopolis, many of us get pained at the impact on the city's greenery. We pay the price with our health, our lifestyle and our culture. Are there alternatives that can provide affordable housing and yet allow us to be surrounded by trees? What about housing colonies like those of government quarters? DRDO Township, CV Raman Nagar (pic: V.Gopalakrishnan) India first gave a thrust to industrialisation during its first two five-year plans and a number of public…

Have you ever wondered why Rajajinagar and Jayanagar are well planned, but Madiwala is not? Why Malleswaram is planned while Srirampuram is a mess? How so many people lived crammed into narrow streets and bylanes in some areas with little or no drainage and roads, while relatively swanky 80ft roads run through HSR Layout? Why does Bangalore have so many illegal layouts? Why does the city fall apart during even a moderate downpour? What happened to all the drainage channels and valleys that originally used to carry water away?Illegal Layouts[Citizen Matters sat down with H B S Aradhya, former Deputy…

Property taxes are due city-wide, but clear information about how the tax is to be calculated has still not reached citizens, and this has created much disturbance and worry.To address the confusion, the Citizens' Action Forum (CAF) on 29th November passed a resolution demanding that the state government should bring back the Annual Rateable Value (ARV) based property tax system. CAF claims that the revised system which the BBMP has introduced recently was a violation of all the promises politicians had made before the elections.The meeting saw a participation of around hundered people from various residents associations who voiced their…

When we talk of garbage not being disposed off well, we do not think about garbage other than the regular kitchen waste and plastic. One major type of waste that we hardly talk about is radioactive waste, produced at cancer hospitals. While our kitchen waste may not be so harmful, radioactive waste can be hazardous. On a casual inquiry, I found out that the cancer hospitals in Bengaluru were apparently disposing residual radioactive waste into the public sewerage and garbage. This sounds alarming, but this is what they are supposed when the radioactive material (used for treatment) is 'fully used'.…