Environment

The excitement around the upcoming Bangalore Literary Festival has been marred by controversy. Writers threatening to boycott the festival and founding director Vikram Sampath stepping down has raised many questions in the minds of Bangaloreans. The good news first. Thanks to social media, citizens across the country are weighing in with their opinions on a variety of issues. The bad news is the tone and tenor of many of these discussions leaves much to be desired. Ironically, many commenters have been intolerant in the ongoing debate about intolerance in our nation. Some of this has coloured the discussion around the…

The ‘I Change Indiranagar’ initiative has been formed by the residents to raise a collective voice against various issues plaguing Indiranagar, issues that have converted Indiranagar from a peaceful neighbourhood to an uncontrolled illegal commercial area, flowing with sewage and garbage strewn. We wish to invite you to a peaceful protest against encroachment of a public playground. The background of the issue can be read here: Public playground in Indira Nagar converted to private cricket camp? A peaceful demonstration has been planned by the residents of Indiranagar 1st Stage to reclaim the playground on November 28th 3.30 pm at the playground. We…

Whenever there is a thought about banning plastic, the solution offered is to recycle the waste. But, to what extent can the plastic be recycled and reused? What happens to the plastic that is recycled for the tenth time and cannot be recycled again? Is there a solution at sight? Yes, solutions are not too hard to practice. There are a few people to prove this. First is the story of Khan brothers. In 1996, when there was a growing demand for the ban on plastic carry bags in Karnataka, two plastic manufacturers from Bengaluru—Rasool Khan and Ahmed Khan—began to…

BBMP Council on 25 February 2015, suo moto, passed a resolution,  wherein Startling Line Sports were granted permission ONLY to develop a cricket pitch in the BBMP playground located in Indiranagar 1st Stage, at their expense; for free usage of general public and students of nearby schools and colleges. There was no mention of subsequent maintenance of the playground in the resolution. The cricket pitch was developed by Starting Line and is being used for their own commercial usage. The public property, in clear violation of The Karnataka Parks, Play-fields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1985, is beingused by…

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…

When I was a kid, every so often, something in the house would go kaput, many a time, because my brother or I felt the need to meddle with it. Living in a remote area in the Nilgiris meant that we would have to wait to get it fixed till we travelled to town. My father would try disassembling and assembling to fix that VCR or whatever small item that was acting up. The times have changed though. But in a changing environment, where people don't have the time to go to a service centre or more often, find nobody…

Music from Kannada films continue to be very popular, despite media coverage of the challenged state of the Kannada film industry.Much of the credit has to go to music directors who continue to innovate, by combining elements of classical music with fast-paced rhythm and lyrics that appeal to the masses. Movie songs are seldom based on a single raga and often are a mix of several ragas. Let's explore some Kannada movie songs that are based on Indian classical ragas. Hamsageethe was a ground-breaking movie that featured classical music from Shyama Shastri's compositions to Jayadeva's Ashtapathis. The movie was based on the…

Naziah sitting in her house, narrating her story. Pic: Kabir Khan My mother left me in Bengaluru under the care of my uncle. He worked in a Government office. Later, he asked my family to move to Bengaluru as there were more employment opportunities in the city. He managed to get us a hut to stay. My family shifted here but we didn’t have any money for food. I was seven or eight years old then—the eldest among all my siblings. We picked vegetables from riverside and sold it for Rs 7 or 8, with which I purchased dal (pulses) and…

Halanayanahalli- off Sarjapur road is like many other parts of the city depends on groundwater for water needs. Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Center (KSNDMC) has put up a weather station at the Halanayakanahalli Gram Panchayat Office. We obtained the rainfall data from KSNDMC and here are the results... 878.5 mm from April to October 2015. Wonder, how much the total would be if November rainfall data is added.   Month Rainfall (mm) Rainfall days Highest rainfall event (mm) April 111.5 12 28.5 May 73.5 10 20 June 120 18 44.5 July 55.5 12 29 August 186.5 15 45.5 September 171.5 12…

The unprecedented heavy rains of the past few weeks has exposed the vulnerabilty of our erstwhile "City of Lakes" yet again... the vulnerability to flooding, primarily due to haphazard growth and inappropriate land use changes. The filling up of several lakes and the exploitation of the ones left back, coupled with similar mistreatment of the land in the immediate vicinity of their catchment areas has had undesired effects on Bangalore.     Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrushi Samiti (MAPSAS) has been working very hard over the past few years to keep Kasavanahalli and Kaikondarahalli lakes, among others, alive and thriving. The…