Environment

 Citizen Matters, Bangalore's own community news magazinepresents a local panel discussion & interaction on "Know more about water: water harvesting, water quality testing, water diseases and more" The panel will have both experienced citizens and experts demonstrating simple techniques and ideas, and taking questions from the participants.When: 11 July, Saturday at 10.30AM to 12.00PM Where: Magnus School of Business, 13th Cross, 6th main road JP Nagar 3rd Phase The panel:Mr Nagaraj Podukotai (experienced RWH user), Mr R Navneeth Kumar (Project Engineer, Indian Institute of Science), Mr Sharada Prasad (Arghyam, water NGO), Dr Balagangadhar (Scientist, KSPCB), Dr Bobby Joseph (Professor, St Johns…

Of late, Bangalore has too many parks. An area like Yelahnaka has more than 30 parks. Though parks look good, they are not planned properly. Parks enhance the beauty of the layout and increase its value, but deprive the children of playgrounds. Where should children go for playing?Today some schools do not have playgrounds. Grounds have been converted to green deserts. No one can enter the parks between 10 AM and 4 PM. What is the big idea of having parks like these? We need trees for generating oxygen and each of these parks can still have walking paths with…

On World Environment day on 5th of June, members of Kuvempunagar Permanent Resident’s Welfare Association and the students of Green Pastures School participated in planting saplings in BTM layout. Around 300 students and 10 teachers from the School participated in this event organised at the Indian Water Works Association(IWWA) Hall at BTM layout 7th main. The students rallied from NS Pallya to BTM holding posters and playing drums.We have planted 100 saplings of Neem, Ashok and Champa, all provided by the Forest Department and BBMP,” said A Vidyashankar, President of the Association. Green Pasture School students (pic: MM) They also…

The World Environment Foundation is launching PROACTIVATE, an environment initiative, in the city on 5th June 2009, to combat climate change. The initiative is a part of World Environment Week 2009 commemoration in association with Institute of Directors, Bangalore Management Association, the Maini Group and the Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services along with their partners PROACTIVATE - an eleven point model of growth developed, discussed and filtered at various workshops and conferences organised by the UK based World Council for Corporate Governance and World Environment Foundation - has found universal support for its holistic focus and simplicity of execution.  This…

A toxic landfill project, which started operating from February 2009, at the outskirts of the city after facing stiff political and local opposition for five years, could be potentially hazardous for residents and villagers living in that area, warn environmental activists. Toxic Landfill at Dobbaspet (pic courtesy: GTZ) The Rs. 55 crore project, a joint venture of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KPSCB) and Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), a German engineering firm, is located almost 50 kilometres away from Bangalore in Dobbaspet near Tumkur Road (NH4) and aims to provide a long-term solution to the state's garbage disposal problem. Pollution…

What would it be like to witness a bunch of people from all walks of life discussing and debating passionately on matters that matter? This was what happened at the lush green campus of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru on 9th May, when around 170 people from over 60 different organisations got together for the 'Unconference' on Green and Sustainability. (Unconferences as opposed to regular conferences, are organized, structured and led by the people attending it.) People from start up companies, large firms, educational institutions, governmental bodies and freelancers held a collective brain storming at a full day…

It was the first time I was actually testing out the walking track here and believe me, this was refreshing. The walking surface is a wee bit rough but who cares, with the kind of visual panorama that unfolds as you take that long curve half-way around the lake. Your starting point is near the Foto Flash outlet and you can go right up to the Gurudwara, where you turn around for the return journey. I couldn't time my stretch, because I was stopping every five minutes to take a picture. The evenings at the lake front can also get…

A cluster of banyans that are home to seven thousand bats A 150 foot tall araucaria tree from New Caledonia! Gnarled and irregular trunks of ancient tamarind trees that are around 800 years old in a Devarakadu (god’s grove) near Bangalore! A keelback snake just about to swallow its breakfast in Lalbagh. These are extracts from Heritage Trees and Green Heritage Sites by Vijay Thiruvady, published by Bangalore Environment Trust on behalf of their project sponsors. To say that Thiruvady is a walking encyclopaedia on trees and wooded areas in and around Bangalore would not be far from the truth.…

Does one call it a lake or a pond? Perhaps it may be better to just refer to it as a “kere” or a water body, since it was clearly once a lake that, over time, became a pond and is now steadily shrinking in size. Some people call it “Arey kere”, others as “Puttanahalli puttkere” to differentiate it from the much bigger Puttanhalli Lake. Call it what you will, this kere is fighting a losing battle for survival - like other water bodies in Bengaluru, like the tall shady trees now being chopped down on one pretext or the…

On 20th March this year, TiE Bangalore presented the TiE Earth Hour celebration, a prelude to celebrating Earth Hour (a worldwide eco-initiative held on 28th March between 8.30 PM and 9.30 PM IST). Organised by the TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Bangalore Special Interest Group (SIG) on CleanTech, the programme began with a brief introduction by Ashok Das who has co-established and spearheads CleanTech SIG. Das is also the CEO of SunMoksha Power that designs and implements solar applications and solutions. CleanTech SIG was launched in June 2008 with the aim of establishing an ecosystem for clean technology and to provide…