Environment

On September 24th, Prof. Ashish Verma, Convenor, IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab (IST Lab) released a voluminous 479-page report co-authored with Hemanthini Allirani from IST Lab, recording air quality index and several other indicators of Quality of Life (QoL) due to 'pedestrianising urban streets' - essentially closing roads to traffic. This is a part of the Innovating for Clean Air (IfCA) programme, a joint initiative between India and UK to pilot air quality improvement initiatives in Bengaluru. Being the first such initiative in Karnataka, the initiative is named ‘Church Street First', based on the location of the study. Church Street was…

Plastic pollution in oceans is overwhelming. A standard garbage truck in New York holds about 13.6 metric tons of trash after it’s been finely packed. This equates to nearly 600,000 garbage trucks full of trash per year, 50,000 garbage trucks of trash per month, 1,600 per day, and more than one full garbage truck per minute getting dumped into the ocean, with no plan for removal, directly threatening the ecology. What are the solutions? Many environmentalist groups are working to solve the ocean plastic problem by removing plastic that has accumulated over time. While this is one of many ideal…

Many Bengalureans don't think of the city as a biodiversity hub. But school students who participated in the 'Biodiversity in my Bengaluru backyard' contest challenged this notion. The contest was organised by Citizen Matters, in collaboration with the conservation magazine Mongabay-India and the apartment management software platform ADDA. Students in grades 9-12 were invited to submit articles or photos/videos of biodiversity in their premises. The best entries were announced at a virtual event on September 18th. Read more: "To protect nature, start at home": Bittu Sahgal Best entries - 'Article' category The following students were selected for submitting the best…

The Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) is due to be implemented by the end of this year. A joint effort of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the Government of Maharashtra and WRI India, the draft version will be showcased at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in November. The general public was invited to give  feedback and suggestions till September 20th. The plan is to work in two ways. The first - mitigation - will concentrate on the sectors of energy and buildings, sustainable mobility and waste management, chosen for their significant contribution to greenhouse…

There is nothing ‘smart’ about a phone whose manufacture involves large-scale evaporation of waterbodies, destruction of large forest areas, production of radioactive waste and poisoning of potable water sources. There is nothing particularly ‘wise’ about humans sacrificing their planet to the fleeting pleasures of tweeting, liking and uploading images via their smart phone internet round-the-clock through enormous heat producing, energy guzzling data centres. This pushes the planet towards the impending irreversible destruction caused by rising global temperatures. The planet is dying. Reducing energy consumption is absolutely necessary to apply the brakes on rising temperatures. It has become the norm to hold industrialists and…

Naresh Chandra Singh, 46, is a native of Kharghar who hails from Manipur in the Northeast of India. A childhood endowed with nature allowed him a natural passion for the environment and its preservation. A job in American IT consulting firm Gartner led him to set up a base in Kharghar, which introduced him to the vast natural landscape of the district and Navi Mumbai as a whole. The slow degradation of nature in Navi Mumbai in the context of rapid urbanisation has compelled him to fight for the precious biodiversity that surrounds and sustains the area. In 2018, he…

Translated by Sandhya Raju வரதா புயல் ஏற்படுத்திய சேதத்தில், சென்னையில் பசுமை போர்வை பெரும் பாதிப்படைந்தது. புயல் சேதத்தை கடந்து நின்ற மரங்களும், போதிய பராமரிப்பு இல்லாததால் அச்சுறுத்தலில் உள்ளது. சுற்றுச்சூழல் பாதிப்பு மட்டுமில்லாமல், பொது மக்களுக்கும் ஆபத்தாக இது மாறியுள்ளது. மரம் நடுதலை ஊக்குவிக்கும் அதே நேரத்தில், இருக்கும் மரங்களை பாதுகாப்பதிலும் அக்கறை கொள்ள வேண்டும். சென்னை மரங்களை பாதுகாத்தல் குடியிருப்பு பகுதிகளில் உள்ள சாலையோர மரங்களின் தாழ்வான கிளைகள் செப்பனிடப்படுவதை சென்னை மாநகராட்சி கண்காணிக்க வேண்டும். பல வருடங்களாக சென்னையின் பல பகுதிகளில் இந்த பணி மேற்கொள்ளப்படவில்லை. இதனால், இந்த மரங்கள் மழைக் காலத்தின் போது முறிந்து விழுகிறது. பருவ மழை காலம் தொடங்கும் முன் மழை நீர் வடிகால் சுத்தம் செய்யப்படுவது போல் தாழ்வான மரக்கிளைகளும் வெட்டி பராமரிக்கப்பட வேண்டும். என் குடியிருப்பு பகுதியில் உள்ள நிலை இதன் முக்கியத்துவத்தை உணர்த்துவதாக உள்ளது. பட்டேல் சாலை,…

I knew of the Baobab tree as a massive tree somewhere in Africa, but little did I know that for most of my life in Bombay, I had been living among these gentle giants. Both the colleges that I studied in had a Baobab tree within 300 meters, but I never noticed them.  "If a Baobab spoke, man wouldn't understand!" This phrase displays the profound nature of the trees and their existence that has surpassed centuries.Pic: Zico Fernandes Originally from Madagascar, Africa, the Baobab trees are defined by their swollen base - with a girth upto 36 ft - and height…

Two years ago, Sobha Daffodils -- an apartment in HSR Layout -- decided to do something about their water footprint. Over 420 houses in the apartment adopted smart water flow meters that monitor water usage in real-time. Since then, Radhakrishna Kurup’s average water intake has dropped by about 20%. Kurup is the President of Sobha Daffodils Apartment Owners’ Association. The use of water globally has increased by roughly six times over the past 100 years, and is expected to rise further. The available freshwater resources have declined by more than 20% per person over the past two decades, according to…

Bengaluru Biodiversity Charche, organised on Saturday, September 18th, was a day-long celebration of the biodiversity of the garden city. It brought together thinkers, activists, journalists and students to explore questions surrounding urban biodiversity, threats faced by various species and how these issues could be brought to light. The event is a culmination of the work Citizen Matters did on the topic over the past year, in collaboration with the environment and conservation magazine Mongabay-India, supported by grants from the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum. Read more: Local residents suffer as Bengaluru lakes no longer offer food, livelihoods Veteran environmentalists spoke Veteran environmental…