PRESS RELEASE

What are the many types of birds, animals and insects that you can see in Bengaluru? What are those beautiful trees, shrubs or weeds that grow here? And oh, those flowers that bloom in our neighbourhood parks and avenue trees!  From the beautiful bee-eater to the humble purslane, there are many captivating life forms to spot and admire just outside our own homes! White Cheeked Barbet. Pic: Deepa Mohan Citizen Matters is organising a contest on “Biodiversity in my Backyard”, in partnership with Mongabay India, an environment and conservation magazine, and apartment management software platform ADDA. We invite students of grades 9-12 residing…

Solid waste management is the gordian knot of urban issues deeply embedded in the larger contexts of consumerism, informal livelihoods, urban ecology, public health, and the political economy of urban development. The question of managing urban waste involves legal, political, economic and social challenges spanning urban infrastructure, technical and human capacities, workers’ safety and welfare, cooperation with local government and citizens, planning, public health, climate change preparedness and sustainable development. Vidhi’s documentary ‘Garbage Matters’ highlights the mounting problem of disposal of municipal waste in Delhi, the implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, and various judicial interventions on the issue.…

In 2018, the NGO Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) filed a PIL (WP 17841 of 2018) in the High Court of Karnataka, considering the city’s deteriorating green cover. The PIL sought to implement the provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act 1976 (‘Trees Act’). This article is a brief summary of the current status of the PIL. The petitioners’ prayers to the court were as follows: The Tree authority and the Tree Officer should do their duties diligently as per Tree Act.A comprehensive Tree Census should be carried out.A public notice should be issued when the Tree Officer gets an…

As one of India’s largest and most populous metros, Chennai exhibits all the traits and vulnerabilities inherent to a developing, high-density city. Rapid urbanization has led to pollution, poverty and energy and water scarcity.  However, one of the key issues with the city is a pronounced lack of civic consciousness. Resilience working group sessions (led by the  Resilient Cities Network chapter in Chennai) involved experts from government, civil and academic bodies. They concluded that in order to achieve sustainable development goals and build resilience, civil ownership and participation was essential. These are the top three areas where citizen participation and involvement…

India’s cities are dealing with an array of complex challenges that have arisen from growing rates of urbanisation, population, motorisation and wealth disparity. They have been consistently ranked as the world’s most congested and polluted cities, which has led to high annual traffic deaths and extremely dangerous levels of particulate matter, on top of lost economic potential. These circumstances, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, in all its calamity, have the effect of bringing to the fore the benefits that cycling can offer in terms of local economic recovery, healing mental and physical health, reinforcing social connections in our communities…

To understand and document the impact of COVID on Bengaluru's crematoria and burial ground workers, two members and a volunteer from the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Karnataka, visited 26 crematoriums/burial grounds between May 4 and 8, 2021 and interviewed workers. Based on these interviews and other publicly available information including circulars issued by the government regarding COVID related deaths and burials/cremations and visits to each facility, they have brought out a report titled ‘Dignity Disposed’. Here is an overview of their findings: Bengaluru has 42 crematoriums and 58 burial grounds according to newspaper reports. Additionally, there are temporary…

Electronics City houses technology giants like Infosys, Wipro, Siemens and HP. While people usually see the developed side of Electronics City with its high rises and IT parks, one often misses the reality, point out residents. According to the Hulimangala Resident Welfare Association, a diverse population of residents in the many villages and residential apartments in Electronics City do not have access to health care. This area, the association says, is eligible to be within Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, but falls outside the city limits. Neither BBMP nor the Electronics City industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) have responded to the COVID…

A report by Healthy Energy Initiative — India (an initiative that works in healthcare and climate change spaces) reveals that two Thermal Power Plants (TPPs) in the Ennore thermal cluster in Tamil Nadu were found violating the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) prescribed norms up to 53% of the total operational time in two years, between 2019-2020.  In March 2021, just as the second wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic was surging in India, the MOEFCC issued a notification extending the deadline to meet the 2015 emission norms for thermal power plants until 2024. Zero action to meet…

A group of individuals and members of civil society organisations including Whitefield Rising, Bangalore Apartment Federation, and Sochara, have written to the Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, highlighting major issues in COVID Management, with suggestions and asks for immediate steps. Here's the letter Dear Shri Yediyurappa, Bengaluru urban and rural is in an extremely serious state with a large number of COVID patients in need of medical resources, from hospital beds, to oxygen infrastructure to ICUs and ventilators. Volunteers and family members of patients are making desperate calls and sending messages to find sources to help those in need. We…

The issue of whether domestic help (house helpers, cooks, drivers etc.) be allowed to continue working in flats during the lockdown has become quite a contentious subject over the last few days. Many apartment residents are complaining that it is putting them to a lot of inconvenience. Some people have even approached the police to take action against managing committees of apartment associations that have restricted entry to domestic help. In this backdrop, my views on this contentious issue are as follows: Every passing day, I am seeing more people dying around me, including in apartment complexes. The inconvenience of…