Environment

In a city that is increasingly concretised and with dwindling green cover, small pockets of green gardens are a sight for sore eyes. While there are avenue trees and public parks, the residents can do their bit to increase the greenery by opting to maintain terrace gardens.  Terrace gardens are no novelty, but the number of people taking the activity up in Chennai could stand to increase. While neighbourhoods in Chennai have come together to maintain community gardens, there is huge potential for the same networks to also disseminate information and help residents set up their own terrace gardens on…

For a conference sponsored by Coca-cola, it is not surprising that representatives of the most-polluting fossil fuel industries at the COP27 increased by 25% from last year, overshadowing the number of representatives from any global south nation. Moreover, COP27, which concluded recently, failed to highlight the irreversible damage caused by fossil fuels. The brief mention of fossil fuels was related to phasing out “inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies and not all fossil fuel subsidies. The pollutant’s very name was explicitly avoided in the final key decisions draft, despite India pushing for a Fossil Fuel phase-down. The slippery language used for the…

The power of consistent campaigning and pursuing a movement to its logical conclusion can be seen in Dattatraya T Devare's and his team's efforts. Since 2007, Devare, trustee of Bangalore Environment Trust (BET), has been working to preserve trees in the city, as part of which he filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking amendments to the Karnataka Tree Preservation Act, 1976. This eventually translated into path-breaking legal amendments to preserve Bengaluru's trees. "When I moved from Pune to Bangalore in 1986, I remember the city was very green," says Devare, "But it began losing its trees due to development…

“The idea for an emission trading system germinated after a team of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab research centre at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) came to Surat sometime in 2012”. This is Jitubhai Vakharia, president of the South Gujarat Textile Processors Association. “During a meeting with them, I realised we were wasting money on compliance with environmental laws under a corrupt inspector raj," he says. Jitubhai was recalling the days when some 300 dyeing and printing mills in Surat were notorious for vomiting noxious gases through their chimneys. Today, ten…

Over the last few decades, the number of private motor vehicles on the roads of Chennai has increased significantly. The increase in the number of vehicles only contributed towards promoting severe air pollution, which had to be controlled. With this in mind, a Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate for motor vehicles was made a mandatory requirement as per the Regional Transport Office (RTO) Rules. The PUC certificate is an indicator that the emissions from the vehicles are within the permissible limit. When the PUC certification rule was first introduced, several centres were opened across the city of Chennai. Over the years…

Some Bengaluru-based startups are innovating on solutions to develop efficient batteries for electric vehicles or recycle used batteries to reduce the carbon footprint of these batteries.Electric vehicle adoption is increasing in India and in Karnataka. Key components of electric vehicles are lithium-ion batteries, which are currently mostly imported.Several of these companies claim that due to the paucity of organised markets for recycling and conventional methods, recycling of batteries remains a concern for the environment and public health. As the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) grows in India, there are concerns about the environmental impacts of the waste they could leave…

If you could time travel to the 1800s, how would Bengaluru's lakes and water channels look? This passage from the ‘Deccan Traverses’ by Dilip da Cunha and Anuradha Mathur gives us an idea. ‘The sugarcane and rice crops looked most flourishing in the low wet land under the great tanks, which have all the appearance of natural lakes. Many of these have been most skilfully constructed, giving proof that the natives knew something of engineering, long before English rule and public works were thought of.’ The passage, referring to Bellandur Bund, is from a letter written in 1868 by Mrs…

While Bengaluru's tree-lined streets are getting fewer and fewer, it is becoming evident that the concrete infrastructure has come at a price. Several reports have attested to the decreasing green cover in urban areas. According to the State of Forest Report 2021, only 3.91% of Karnataka's geographical area has tree cover. The data also revealed that between 2011 and 2021, Bengaluru lost almost 12.9 square kilometres of moderately dense forest. "Tree cutting is presented as inevitable or as a fait accompli for any road or metro project. More often than not, how the road should progress is decided first and…

In the first part of The Secret Life of Bengaluru’s Lakes, the history of the city’s lakes and how they are connected were explored. In the second part, the author looks at the future of lakes and how protecting lakes could improve our transit experience. Uses and Users of Lakes There is a lot more going on in our lakes today than we are aware of. Here is a short video that highlights some of the activities in some of our lakes. Read more: In pictures: Backyard birding at Kaikondrahalli and Kasavanahalli lakes The future of lakes Our relationship with…

Panchasheela Nikalje, 43, almost walked into a ditch full of water one wet July morning in 2022. “I don’t know if we have more rain or worse roads, or both,” she said over the phone. It had been a long day of work swabbing floors of vitrified tile in apartments in suburban Mumbai’s Malad. “But walking to go to work seems riskier every time it rains.” A resident of Ambujwadi, a sprawling colony of informal homes adjoining a coastal swamp in north-west Mumbai, Panchasheela says she goes to work regardless of the weather. “Bahut baarish ya bahut dhoop me bhi. (On…