Environment

Bengalureans celebrated World environment day by contributing towards tree planting and getting an eco-friendly cloth bag in return. Citizen Matters in association with Prakruthi, an NGO focusing on ‘eco centric infotainment’ held this event at Jayanagar shopping complex on 5 June 2012. Organisers and celebrity with the eco friendly bag. Meera k (from right) Co-founder of Citizen Matters, M S Prasad, co-founder of Prakruthi, Prakash Mendoth Jayanagar Trade Association President, Vasundhara das actress and singer. Pic: Sankar C G The green event got a touch of glamour with actor-singer Vasundhara Das, actor, Bhavna, actor - singer Sunil Raoh and actor…

We have a lot of birds around us in the city. Some eat seeds, some fruits and some eat live prey. We’ve all seen sparrows pecking at the grain in the market areas, or seen parakeets pecking at ripe fruit...but some birds are predators.Even in the city, we have several predators; the most common, of course, is the crow, which will often raid the nests of other birds to eat up their eggs. But there are two common birds that actually help human beings in our city....and at least one does not deserve the bad reputation it has. Barn Owl.…

There was a shower That shook a treeA branch broke free And shut out the powerKids gathered noisilyAdults responded quickly The police arrivedThe loggers followedThey sawed the wood But left the leavesTea was servedJokes were sharedKudos were heardPictures were clickedWhile Nature witnessedAll that happenedWill this recur?Will the tree go next?Will that hurt someone?Will anyone help?Don't just wait and watch! 

Today on 5th June, a team of around 20 youngsters will celebrate World Environment Day, at Narsipura lake, in Vidyaranyapura, Bangalore North. Children from local schools will join and sing Kannada songs on nature and biodiversity. They will also plant some saplings. Original five who grew into Pancharathna plus. Courtesy: Jayalakshmi Chatterjee The youngsters in the age group 7-17 yrs have been working since mid-April to preserve the biodiversity of Narsipura Kere.There were initially five children -  Viraja, Adityan, Anand, Akash and Boomika (thus Pancharatna or five gems in Sanskrit) who started to take an interest in the birds, this…

The Bangalore 10K was coming up and registrations had opened. I had not run even 10kms in the whole of last year, I decided to skip it. End of story.Hang on! A few weeks later I came across an email that said that PNLIT, which is a small organisation, trying to do its best at saving and improving the neighbourhood lake, would be one of the participating NGOs in the fund raiser. That is when I decided to change my mind and participate in the marathon. And raise funds for it at the same time. Time was short. I had about 20 days…

There is no area in Bangalore today where rainwater directly seeps into the ground except a few parks like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. Almost all roads are cemented or tarred.  Natural lakes and ponds have become foundations for huge residential apartments and commercial complexes. Rain harvesting pit in JayanagarBBMP has miserably failed in managing rainwater. The idea of having a 12 feet deep pits reinforced with concrete rings in storm water drains is good but is shabbily executed in Jayanagar.BBMP officials should have ensured that the rainwater enters the drain and reaches the rainwater harvesting pit.  If this exercise was…

PNLIT is delighted to tell you that it has been shortlisted for the People's Green Award instituted as part of the TCS World 10K. Public voting and Jury assessment will together decide the final three winners.   PNLIT is a local people's initiative to tackle the problem of dying lakes and water shortage through public participation. We were instrumental in getting the Puttenahalli Lake restored and are the first citizens' group in Bangalore to officially maintain a lake.  We work within a very tight budget from donations made mostly by individual well wishers.  The People's Green Award will help us get some…

During the months of April and May, a lot of birds are observed to be nesting in various parts of the Bengaluru. In places like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park, which has a lot greenery and a fair amount of wooded area, birds can be found, and if we're patient enough, a few rarer sightings are a possibility.Here are a few birds that are nesting in our city.Amongst those birds we often see flying across trees or across streets, either in groups or in pairs is the Rose-ringed Parakeet. These parakeets are found in many pockets of the city, and are…

As I write this, I hear the noise of yet another borewell being dug on my street. This is the ninth one since December 2011; all within a radius of less than half kilometre, in Kalyan 1st block, HRBR Layout. This is happening at a time when the newly formed Karnataka Ground Water Authority is trying to gather force.45 houses in HRBR layout were surveyed informally for this piece. Ground water levels, availability of corporation water, implementation of rain water harvesting (RWH) are some of the things that were looked at. What I found out could be the reality across…

The layout has 23 wells with an average holding capacity of 4000 litres each. We have been recharging 4.5 million litres into the ground with rainwater harvesting, with about 50 rainy days in a year. Ferns Paradise is a 48 acre layout, in Whitefield, consisting of around 300 residential plots. The residents are completely dependent on groundwater. Realizing the importance of having a sustainable water resource, the WMC, constituted by the Layout’s Resident Welfare Association (RWA) comprising people passionate about water conservation - Babita Saxena, Radhica Kanniganti and Rajesh Thakkar. The WMC has made it mandatory for all the new…