Environment

X and V are not finished yet. The basic rescue act is over and the initial impact has been made. Their mission is to find a permanent solution to a decades-old problem, not just beautify a street corner for a feel-good photo-op. It would be a failure if the dump just shifted to the next orphan spot, to the next point of least resistance. V & X are very conscious of this, and have worked out a plan. For a start, they have made friends with all the security guards in the area. All commercial areas have security guards – who are…

Dogs trying to figure out the source of stinking meat on Railway Parallel Road, Malleshwaram. Some residents of Malleshwaram in Bengaluru noticed that there was a foul smell in the air one fine morning, after the first rains. They saw many bags lying around near the railway area on 11th main road. When they checked the bags, there was animal waste dumped by unknown persons, rotting and causing the smell. When they enquired with city administration, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials on how to dispose animal waste, the answer they got was shocking: BBMP does not have a proper…

People's Campaign for Right to water- Karnataka (PCRW-K) is a campaign pushing for a water democracy that protects water as a common property resource and provides safe, sufficient and clean water for all. The campaign also works on protection of lakes, water bodies in Karnataka and conserving water resources as commons. This is a press note from the Campaign, produced as it is. The campaign works to make the state responsible to facilitate people’s participation in nurturing lakes as commons and has repeatedly registered complaints, had series of discussions with the Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka and various concerned departments…

Monday morning, 950am Damn – why is the bus stuck here for so long at Mekhri Circle today?I had left home at 9am with the intention of reaching the Spot by 10am, but looks like I will reach only by 11. Bangalore has this brand new bus system, the G-10, that has made commuting from far-flung suburbs to city centre so much easier. But it seems like everything collapses when a VIP is in town, as all the main roads of Bangalore leading to the airport are blocked this morning. This is ridiculous – why should the overcrowded city be…

Citizens protesting silently in front of BDA against its inability to protect lakes. Pic: Nikita Malusare At 9:38 am on Friday, May 9th 2014, the BDA office was yet to open, but members of the People’s Campaign for Right to Water - Karnataka were already present, protesting silently against the government’s increasing apathy towards lakes in the city of Bengaluru. Pictures speak louder than words, and this was affirmed once more in the protest as no one uttered any slogan. They held posters that showed the current scenario of the lakes in general in the city that are being turned…

In a recent article, I referred to a bicycle as an invention that has been around for more than a 100 years. It is still essentially the same - and that was a good thing. There is another invention that has been around for the same length of time - but that is not so good. It's the humble incandescent bulb. Till fairly recently it has been the primary source of electric light. However, over the last few years, other options have emerged - namely Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) and Light Emitting Diode(LED) bulbs. The question then arises - should one…

  I had seen V & X for the first time on Thursday, the day before their ‘hit’. I was walking down Church Street after a coffee at Koshy’s and was heading towards Blossom Books, when I saw these two guys photographing this ugly garbage pile outside the Times of India building. One of them was literally standing in the pile and holding up a shopping bag he had extricated from the dump, and the other was photographing it.  I did look at them but did not stop – assuming they were from the media; the city’s garbage woes are…

Participate in a workshop on Ward Committee Roles and Responsibilities for a Greener, Cleaner, Safer, Water secure and Healthy Bengaluru. Date: Thursday 22nd May 2014 Time: 10.00 am – 4.00 pm Venue: Environment Support Group – Training Centre, 1575, Intermediate Ring Road, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560070 Why this workshop: Bengaluru is increasingly becoming an unaffordable and difficult city to live in.  Never ending traffic congestion, expensive public transportation, garbage lying everywhere, no water in taps, borewells running dry, lakes getting polluted (even disappearing overnight), heat, noise and air pollution everywhere, rampant tree felling has become a feature of every neighbourhood.  Women, children and senior citizens…

KCDC all set to process waste with new machines. Pic: Nikita Malusare Dysfunctional machinery and long approval procedures are among the many reasons why the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) facility  has been emitting a foul odour for months now, much to the discomfort of residents in the neighbourhood. Residents living in the areas surrounding KCDC cried foul against the unbearable odour emanating from the plant that has huge mounds of old waste. For several years, KCDC received close to 1000 tons of waste daily which was beyond its processing capacity of 300 tons per day. However, in 2008, because…

With the sun's heat accelerating the rate of evaporation, the water level has fallen sharply in our Puttenahalli Lake and there are no more than four or five pools of water left. We have been consoling ourselves with the thought that this is still far, far better than this time last year when we had literally a few buckets of water in the entire lake. Fish had died in scores then and the lake bed was hard and with cracks and crevices. Encouraged by the monsoon filling the lake somewhat, in September we'd released 3000 fingerlings and the birds returned once again. …