Green Spaces

I received this announcement just now:Bangalore International Airport is delighted to announce its first Hasiru Habba.The objective of the Hasiru Habba is to create awareness to the community on environmental harms and to provide a simple message in effective way to every individual to make a positive change.Bangalore International Airport is conscious about your organization and the work that your organization is engaged towards environment. Bangalore International Airport would like invite your organization to be a part of this first ever Hasiru Habba to be held at Aiprort commencing from 15th August 2009 to 17th August 2009. Kindly accept this…

The other day, a friend from Hasiru Usiru got news that some trees were being felled at a construction site near the Indian Express building. A few people including me went to investigate and see if we could do anything about it.  It didn't take us very long to discover the site. When this group reached the spot, we discovered that trees had not been felled as yet, but branches of one tree had been pruned and pruned rather extensively. On asking the contractors if they intended to cut the trees which were in the vicinity, they said that they…

The 5th International Canopy conference from 25th October - 31st october, 2009, in Bangalore, India.Details here For those interested...ATREE is also organizing a painting competition on the theme "Forest canopies" as part of the International canopy conference. Check the link for more details here ⊕References

Here's a link to the web album by Nithya, which covers this protest:click here Apparently all that has been agreed to is that BBMP will take "appropriate action"...this may not be enough, and we may have to protest more!⊕References

When I bump over the potholes, When I (don't) see the missing trees... When I can feel the pollution Because it makes me wheeze.... When I'm cycling in the hot sun Without an ounce of shade, I know that this "desert" Bangalore Is completely "BBMP-made"!  ⊕References

Many of us know that hundreds of trees are  felled all over the city under the guise of road widening often with no prior approval. Traders, home-owners, street vendors and slum dwellers are  dislocated without appropriate compensation apparently for various infrastructure projects without guarantee that these tasks will meet their proposed objectives and deadlines. If these citizen groups hadn’t intervened, BBMP would have implemented its road-widening scheme launched in 2005 (pic courtesy: Hasiru Usiru/ESG) Knowing that we could either accept or question the largely brazen and undemocratic approach adopted in the name of the city's development, some groups such as…

Of late, Bangalore has too many parks. An area like Yelahnaka has more than 30 parks. Though parks look good, they are not planned properly. Parks enhance the beauty of the layout and increase its value, but deprive the children of playgrounds. Where should children go for playing?Today some schools do not have playgrounds. Grounds have been converted to green deserts. No one can enter the parks between 10 AM and 4 PM. What is the big idea of having parks like these? We need trees for generating oxygen and each of these parks can still have walking paths with…

What would it be like to witness a bunch of people from all walks of life discussing and debating passionately on matters that matter? This was what happened at the lush green campus of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru on 9th May, when around 170 people from over 60 different organisations got together for the 'Unconference' on Green and Sustainability. (Unconferences as opposed to regular conferences, are organized, structured and led by the people attending it.) People from start up companies, large firms, educational institutions, governmental bodies and freelancers held a collective brain storming at a full day…

Here's a message written by my fellow-volunteer at Hasiru Usiru, Kanishka Lahiri: The protests opposing the current plans of the Bangalore Metro in the southern reach have been well publicized in the mainstream media. As a result, they have elicited statements from politicians across party lines supporting the suggestion that the design and alignment of the metro be re-examined before further work is taken up. Interestingly, yesterday, the Chief Minister has made an adamant statement saying there cannot be any change to the current plan of the Metro. Why then, did his Transport Minister state otherwise in a pre-election statement?…

Though sitting far away, I feel very involved in trying to work out solutions that will not further deplete our green cover, yet sort out our transportation woes. So here's a great opportunity that Hasiru Usiru is offering!In recent weeks Bangaloreans made their presence felt on the streets through well-publicized protests around the Metro alignment in South Bangalore. This is a good moment to pause and better understand the numerous issues that have been raised at these events, and collectively plan a future course of action.To this end, it's a pleasure to invite everyone on this list to a public…