Environment

71 academicians from Bengaluru submitted a public statement to BBMP on Thursday, slamming the road widening plans. The statement was addressed to S Suresh Kumar, Minister for Urban Development, Mayor Sharadamma, Deputy Mayor, S Harish, A Ravindra, Advisor to the CM on Urban Affairs, K Jairaj, Additional Chief Secretary, K M Shivakumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department (UDD), S K Lohia, Director, Urban Transport and BBMP Commissioner Sidddaiah.In the statement the researchers and academicians from IISc, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), IIMB and astrophysicists from Raman Research Institute, requested BBMP to look at the…

White-throated Kingfisher. Pic: Sohel Mohamed/B R Srivatsa. Sohel Mohamed and B R Srivatsa are both Birdwatchers with interest in wildlife conservation residing in HSR & BTM Layout respectively. They have shared the following report on the Avifauna Biodiversity of our Kaikondrahalli Lake. We have been visiting the lake for over 3 years and keep a track of the birdlife there. We have even tudied the changes pre and post-rejuvenation. The lake pre-rejuvenation show vast tracts covered by vegetation. Pic: Sohel Mohamed/BR Srivatsa. Observations [between November 2010 to June 2011]1. The number of species seen went up from 42 (pre-rejuvenation) to…

At any time of the day, you will see more people than birds at our Puttenahalli Lake. There are the brisk morning or evening walkers, strollers, people who use the track as a short cut to go from or to Puttenahalli, the time pass guys who sit singly or in a group at the gazebo, two wheelers, though their number is reducing gradually. Well, we are constantly standing in their path and sending them back. That’s what I did today with a motorbike rider and a cyclist - much to the startled horror of three students from Kumaran School who…

Last Friday, 12 green activists protesting the tree cutting on Sankey road were arrested. Though the most of the trees were not saved, it sure brought back memories from two decades ago of a similar, but successful protest in 1991. A group of young men including Vinay Baindur, Mahesh Kumar, Sudhir Jayaram and Gururaja Budhya, were able to prevent a number of trees in Malleswaram from being felled. These young men petitioned the Governor, to save the trees. Three of them were detained by the police . Many in this group have gone on to play a major role in…

Leo Saldanha of the city-based green NGO Environmental Support Group intervened in a move that partly led to dropping of charges against the protestors and activists arrested on July 1st during the Sankey Road episode. Protesters were objecting to cutting of 19 trees on Sankey Road for it's proposed widening from Bhashyam Circle to Malleshwaram 18th Cross. Victoria D'Souza, protester, was dragged along with the other women to the police van. Pic: Yogaraj Mudalgi. Saldanha spoke to city police commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji and questioned the decision of Circle Inspector of Vyalikaval station to slap charges on those arrested under…

You must be having a ‘special' tree in your life. Or at least a memory of - a mango tree you grew up climbing; the neighbour's Jamun tree that stained your compound wall purple; Ajji's house Jackfruit tree and its profuse yield; the Pipal tree by the river in your ‘native' village; the ‘haunted' Tamarind tree on the edge of the school compound... Tulika publishers' latest - ‘Let's plant trees' by Vinod Lal Heera Eshwer, is a book for parents as much as children. It gets directly to the point - action, not theoretical discussions. It comes with real Pongam…

A visit to the slums in RT Nagar with Indulekha Vijayasarathy, an active member of ‘Ashvasan' a volunteer organisation was an eye opener. The residents of these slums are taught to make paper bags. "I deliver newspapers and glue. Also help them sell their finished paper bags to the drug stores who pay them. They need help with the marketing and paper supply," says Indulekha, pulling out bundles of newspaper from her car. Ashvasan reaches out to a thousand senior citizens and people in five slums around Bangalore. They provide newspapers to the women in the slums who in turn…

Rejuvenation of three lakes - Ambalipura, Kaikondanahalli and Puttenahalli lakes in south-east and south Bengaluru stand out as examples of successful projects undertaken by the BBMP. A common denominator in all three rejuvenation is the initiative taken by citizens living nearby to save them from extinction. Three concerned citizens started off the process - K Rajesh Rao, Priya Ramasubban and Usha Rajagopalan. Weeding in progress at Ambalipura lake. Pic: Yogaraj S Mudalgi Rao, a resident of Trinity Woods on Sarjapur Road and an IT professional, got the attention of BBMP towards the pathetic condition of the 7.4 acre Ambalipura lake.…

It was World Environment Day last week and India had the honour of hosting the International World Environment Day 2011 for the very first time. Jairam Ramesh, our erudite and enthusiastic environment minister called trees ‘water pumps’ and paradoxically the event was devoted to ‘Forests: Nature at your service’. As a media fellow of UNEP, I was proud to sit in the audience and listen to the minister tell the world that India was among the developing nations working towards addressing the pressures of ecological change. He told us about India’s Rural Employment Act and the country’s encouragement of renewable…

Golden Jackal. Pic: kalyan Verma, courtesy: Nature Conservation Foundation. Nature Conservation Foundation has launched Jackals: Past and Present, a two-month, public, nationwide online survey to find out more about the golden jackal. Although jackals are distributed widely in India, very little is actually known about them. But at the same time, because they are also easily recognised, we hope to draw on what people already know about jackals to uncover trends in how widely or how often they are being seen, and learn about the threats they face across the country.To do this, we really need your participation. So, please…