Environment

"A success story from your own city. For 2014, please make this your calendar, all you corporates, entrepreneurs and business leaders from Bangalore. I assure you that all the skimpy models, the invasive flowers AND the exotic cagebirds will be happy you made this choice." - Bijoy Venugopal, Journalist at Yahoo PNLIT has recently released its desk top calendar for 2014. The calendar features world standard photographs of 12 different birds, one to delight you every month of the year. All the photographs have been taken at Puttenahalli Lake in JP Nagar 7th Phase, Bangalore, by our local photo-enthusiasts, the PNLIT…

“People just don’t care! There is no sense of civic responsibility. People just want the waste out of their houses”. This I heard from almost every informant I talked to. In this article, I want to share some of my findings during the past two and a half month I have been here in Bengaluru. I came to India for the first time in 2008 and found the country enchanting but also overwhelming. I wanted to come back again and so I did - three times more since then. This time I am here to do a research for my…

Having spent the last couple of months speaking to the residents of Sadashivanagar, convincing them to begin segregating their garbage, I once again joined the pourakarmikas on their Saturday dry-waste collection drive to note what impact my efforts had on apathetic residents, and to adjudge how much more I would have to do to help realise the dream of 100% collection.  The pourakarmikas – who by now had grown accustomed to my company – greeted me with smiles and waves. They informed me that the drive would start a few minutes late due to the early-morning rain which had dampened…

Not so early in the morning, I look down from my third floor apartment. There’s a lady sweeping the dead-end road. I know her, though I don’t know her name. She wears the official BBMP coat and she collects garbage from each of the apartment building. Sometimes I see her, while walking, from a car and smile and wave at her. She smiles back. A beautiful, cheery smile, but with an edge of self-consciousness. As if unused to be smiled at. As if unacknowledged as a human by those who live in apartments. (Pic for representation only. Can’t find the…

If you are concerned about Bangalore's lakes, then this is one event you do not want to miss. SBLT's workshop "Namma Kere, Namma Bengaluru" (originally scheduled for 10th November) is now on 30th November 2013, at Senate Hall, Central College.  To facilitate planning, kindly register at  http://goo.gl/SYoEpC  to confirm your participation. More details are in the poster below.   Agenda provided by SBLT

On November 9, 2013, Whitefield residents got a unique opportunity to learn about sharing space with wildlife. A group of 20 enthusiastic residents assembled at the clubhouse of Waterville apartments, to attend the first ever session on Wildlife conservation with a focus on snakes. This session was part of a track that aims to help us to peacefully co-exist with our furry (and not so furry) animal friends. Conducted by Gerry Martin and Sumanth Madhav, the session addressed aspects of man-animal conflict, what one can do when encountering snakes, and the best ways to avoid these encounters. While children chatted among themselves…

As one walks into Silverend, Mohan and Priya Mascarenhas' 130-year-old heritage home,  the greenery around envelopes you. The fragrance of the flowering plants and the carefully laid out beds makes one halt in one's tracks to take in the breathtaking array of Nature's bounty that surrounds along the tiled pathway leading to the home. The soft sounds of wind chimes, the birds chirping and butterflies hovering around the flowers  take you to a bygone era. You will wonder if this is indeed a home in Urban Bengaluru. Silverend has also won awards for the Best Old Home from the Urban Arts Commission. Unconventional atractive designs…

Ibblur lake is a small lake situated on Sarjapura ORR road junction, roughly 12 acres in its current state. In the beginning of 2013, local residents and RWAs came together and instituted Ibblur Lake Forum, an informal federation of RWAs and united in their goal of the restoration and rejuvenation of the lake. The lake has rotated jurisdiction a couple of times in recent times and is presently under the purview of the BDA. JCB clearing encroachment on Ibblur lake bed. Pic: Mukund Rao After much engagement by the community with the authorities, the BDA finally approved the fencing of…

We all have heard of the dangers of plastic - about how animals can ingest the plastic and can then die due to indigestion. But there are several other ways plastic can endanger wildlife, too. Sometimes, the dangers are seen quite dramatically. Let me illustrate with two examples that I saw. At Nandi Hills, I saw this Black (or Common) Kite, with a big plastic bag entangled in its talons. It was flying about, desperately trying to get the bag off, but in vain: Black Kite with Plastic Caught in Talon Nandi Hill The Kite could not chase any prey…

One of the amazing things about the city of Bangalore is that it sits on a natural wonder... the rock that the city sits on is one of the oldest exposed rocks in the world. Lalbagh rock. Pic: Deepa Mohan This wonder of Nature, called Peninsular Gneiss, is so easy to see. Here’s what the Wikipedia entry says: “The Geological Survey of India identified one of the best exposures of this rock mass, protruding high above the ground as a hillock (pictured), dated 2.5 to 3.4 billion years, in the Bangalore city in India at the famous Lalbagh gardens and…