Environment

The Karnataka High Court dismissed the petition against the proposed national military memorial to be constructed at the Indira Gandhi musical fountain park. The verdict, pronounced by a division bench comprising of Justices Manjula Chellur and Mohan Shantagoudar, on June 4th, said that the proposed war memorial is in the interest of the public and a matter of pride for the citizens of Bengaluru. The bench also said that the National Military Memorial Trust, under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, will take care of the project. Work at the war memorial site was halted in May this year, after…

A park has been earmarked on Harlur Road, right opposite Raindrops apartment, which is stone throwaway distance from Spencer's mall on Sarjapur Road. The Forward150 Federation has been trying to get it moving.One day BBMP men came and installed big yellow concrete board saying "Udyana Vana" and a children's jungle gym. Not inside the park site. Inside a neighbouring site. Then there was confusion, there was talk of a disputed property and which is the actual park area.In a few months, that resolved and the actual park area was fenced. The elections happened and nothing moved for a while. Nayaz,…

In the special BBMP council session on water more than two weeks ago, Chickpet corporator A N Shivkumar (BJP) complained about the number of unauthorised water connections in his ward. He requested Mayor S K Nataraj (BJP) and BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy to look into the matter. Is the Cauvery water you use metered? Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal This complaint comes well in time as just last month on April 16th 2010, the state assembly* passed an amendment to the BWSSB Act, 1964. Section 108 (a) of this Act is with regard to theft of water which is a punishable…

Hariprakash Agarwal, President, Suncity Apartment Owners Association (SAOA) and Director, Community Services at Rotary Club Bangalore Lakeside, shares this news for residents of Sarjapur Road, Outer Ring Road area.The Rotary Club Bangalore Lakeside, Suncity apartments, Sobha Group of apartments with the help of BBMP have taken up a tree plantation project. We had been planning to plant trees from long time adjacent to Belandur lake and we came to know that 5 June is World Environment Day hence we thought of celebrating it with planting about 500 to 1000 saplings. Most of the planting will happen near Suncity, Euphoria and…

Bangalore Environment Trust has come out with a position paper on the widening of 91 roads in general and six core inner city roads in particular. Bangalore Environment Trust (BET), founded in 1987, works on environment issues concerning the city. Our point is that there is a case for a relook at this 91 roads programme based on various traffic measures being taken by the government like Metro, Monorail, underpasses etc. In any case, we feel that six heritage roads with a large number of old trees must not be widened, but instead various other measures to expedite traffic must…

Kaikondrahalli Lake is in the news in our neighbourhood. Some of our active residents are working with BBMP Lake Project which is rejuvenating the lake. Dredging work is almost done and bunds on the side are getting constructed. Meanwhile, a young Springfields apartment resident, Rajul Ramchandani, a student of Delhi Public School, has made a short video. He has submitted the video to India Water Portal's Lost Lakes of Bangalore. The Lost Lakes of Bangalore is a project to document Bengaluru’s many tanks and lakes which have vanished with urbanization and growth. See the video here: The parallel activity that…

There has been a sudden interest in this whole idea - before I got to wonder why - I read somewhere that BBMP has made rain water harvesting compulsory. I am glad I was able to attend this session on Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) by A R Shivakumar, Executive Secretary and Principal Investigator – RWH, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST). This was held at Mantri Classic Hall, ST Bed on May 15th.  Around 30 people attended the session.It was a very good session and BWSSB is willing to conduct such sessions on request. All you need to…

The Karnataka High Court's order with regard to the state government's proposed war memorial project is likely to be pronounced during this week. Just last week, the BDA had begun work at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park, where the memorial is proposed to come up. This was, however, stalled following several media reports that suggested that going ahead with construction work amounted to contempt of court as the case is subjudice. Last week, the BDA had started construction work at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park. This was later stalled after objections from the public. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal The…

We wish to introduce ourselves under the aegis of the "Save Sankey Road and Park Forum". We comprise of people from all walks of life - doctors, advocates, civil servants, software engineers, business persons, house wives and students and so on. Sankey Park Walkers Association, Sadashivanagar Residents Welfare Association, Lower Palace Orchards Residents Welfare Association, Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative, Hasiru Usiru, Sadashivnagar Working Professionals Group and Gayatridevi Park Residents Welfare Association came under one roof for the cause of preserving the existing green cover of Sankey Road. It is under threat from unscientifically planned road widening.Mission- To engage in a constructive…

BBMP has installed an Organic Waste Converter (OWC) in  Malleswaram Market a couple of weeks ago as part its project to renovate the market. The market now has a system that manages all waste that is generated within the market. The OWC cost around Rs 22 lakhs. OWC can process one ton of waste every day. Pic: Vani Murthy. The OWC is a machine that processes wet organic waste by employing aerobic microbial decomposition. The organic waste is churned into a homogenised; odour free output through a bio-mechanical process. This output is left to cure in baskets for stabilisation where…