LOCAL

Karnataka Composting Development Corporation (KCDC) in HSR Layout, Bengaluru, is in news yet again. Residents are demanding that the government: 1. Shift the existing plant immediately to a remote and unpopulated location outside the city limits, as all other options to control the odour from the plant have failed 2. Limit the current intake of the wet waste to 70 tonnes as an interim measure to reduce the smell until plant shifts out to remote location. 3. Clear the Refuse-Derived Fuel backlog, release the encroached land and restores the ecosystem of the lake as per the NGT norms. Through an…

Located along the borders of Chennai, Chitlapakkam Lake was a source of freshwater that was used by the residents of Chitlapakkam and nearby areas. With the urbanization of the neighbourhood, the lake has become a receptacle of garbage and debris. Chitlapakkam Rising, an NGO, along with the local Residents’ Welfare Associations and other NGOs, namely the Environmental Foundation of India and Arappor Iyakkam are trying to save the lake which has lost more than half its original area. As a step towards that, a social audit conducted by Harris Sultan of Arappor Iyakkam with the help of the Chitlapakkam Rising…

Nisaptham translates to a lack of sound in Tamil. But a trust by that name translates the dreams of students from government schools into reality. In a function at the Anna Centenary Library in July, the Nisaptham Trust run by IT professional and writer Vaa Manikandan announced the launch of libraries at fifteen government schools across the State. While the initiative is undoubtedly a noble and commendable one, the launch occasion itself was also significant and awe-inspiring. Students and teachers from various government schools had converged at the Anna Centenary Library for the event and were visibly inspired by the…

First  it was Madras Day, then Madras Week. And now some say it should be Madras Month. And if that were to be accepted, today would be the first day of Madras Month! Happy birthday month to namma Madras! It has been reasonably established that 22 August 1639 was the day Andrew Cogan and Francis Day of the East India Company, purchased the village of Madrasapattinam from Damarla Venkatapathy, Nayak of Vandavasi, owing allegiance to the Vijayanagara kings. First, a trading post was established at the site. In 1640 the foundations of Fort St George were laid, and the rest,…

Wrong information is being put out on the official Metropolitan Transport Corporation of Chennai MTC website, www.mtcbus.org, on the routes that it operates. The website itself is unfriendly and the design is years old. While MTC operates several ‘small bus’ routes, it has wrongly prefixed regular routes with S in the database, while not giving information on Small Bus routes. For example, the regular route 7E is prefixed as S07E from Broadway to Ambattur Estate. S26 has been listed as if it is a small bus, when in fact it is route 26, from Broadway to Iyyappanthangal. Such wrong information given…

Chennai’s character is defined by its resilience. The city powerfully rose to the occasion when it was hit by floods in 2015. Nature was not any kinder in 2016. Cyclone Vardah stripped the city of its green cover in December 2016. At least one lakh trees were uprooted in Chennai during Vardah, resulting in about 21 to 28 percent loss of green cover. It was observed during Vardah that native trees survived the disaster but exotic trees perished in the calamity. This is because the former have a deep-rooted system while exotic species generally have shallow roots and cannot withstand…

Most of us would be surprised to know that Chennai’s is the oldest city Corporation in Asia, only behind London in the world. It is also interesting to note that Chennai’s suburban Railways was started as early as 1931 to bridge the northern and southern parts of the city. Since independence, the Chennai suburban transportation system has been operated by Southern Railways, the oldest operating zone in independent India. Suburban railways has evolved as an arterial system for transportation in Chennai and  handles 17,60,000 people per day.  Yet, as the commuter load increased a critical gap began to be felt…

District Lions Service Foundation (DLSF-317 A) has built a 'Lions Centennial Clock Tower to commemorate successful completion of 100 years of service to mankind. The Lions Centennial Clock Tower is built at RBI Layout play ground, Phase 7, JP Nagar. The centennial clock tower comprises of a large clock with an hourly chime, bust of legendary Lions founder Lion Melvin Jones and large Lions logo which stood as a common identity for Lions over the last 100 years. It was inaugurated on 30th June 2017, by M Krishnappa, MLA , Bangalore South Constituency in the presence of Shashi Rekha Jayaram,…

Every day, thousands of residential homes and apartment complexes across suburban Chennai, which are not connected to the underground drainage network of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), are at the mercy of the private sewage lorries which remove the sewage water from their septic tanks. The lorry-owners demand anywhere between Rs 750 - 1000 per tanker load. Not satisfied with this, and driven by the sole objective of maximising their profits, they illegally dump the entire raw sewage water from the lorries into open fields, lake beds and storm water drains. The capacity of a tanker…

On Sunday, June 18th, Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) and Environmental Foundation of India (EFI) in association with The Hindu and Casa Grande organized the 8th edition of the Chennai Coastal Cleanup (CCC), a South India-wide awareness drive on our growing garbage footprint and the impact on the environment. 5000 volunteers and 130 organizations, schools, NGOs in 10 large cities removed 41 tonnes of garbage from lakes, rivers and beaches. In Chennai, 4600 volunteers participated in removing 32 tonnes of garbage from 20 km of Chennai's shoreline between Lighthouse and Uthandi. Volunteers segregated garbage in 69% recyclables (glass, plastics, etc) taken…