Environment

Over the last few years, the city of Bengaluru has been growing beyond its potential. As a city with educated and active citizens, civic activism has been a significant decider in how the city develops.  One of the citizen activism initiatives has been developing the existing railway network to boost the suburban rail project.  A few years ago, the Government of Karnataka (Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Company (K-RIDE)) started developing a plan for the extension of these railway networks. It recently announced that the 48-km Baiyappanahalli-Hosur railway line will be double tracked by 2022.  Public Notice issued by Department of Forest…

It's one of the less discussed fall-outs of the pandemic. One year of COVID-19 has reversed all the small victories and legitimised the usage of plastic and single-use products in Chennai, dealing a huge blow to the efforts at fostering a more sustainable lifestyle among its citizens. Immediately after the state government announced the plastic ban in June 2018, the city had started taking sincere steps towards minimising the use of single use plastic (the ban was implemented from January 2019), and in the months that followed Chennaiites appeared to be adapting to a more sustainable, plastic-free lifestyle. Retail and…

Any Kharghar resident who takes the local train to work, would have easily noticed what is going on across the creek as they leave or reach the railway station. Rivers, mangroves, wetlands, hills that mother nature has bestowed us are being ravaged — all for one purpose: building the Navi Mumbai International Airport. It is definitely a good thing to have an airport nearby as it will bring down airport commute times from hours to just a few minutes. It will also lead to general economic development for Navi Mumbai and surrounding suburbs. The scale at which works are being…

“We have written around 200 online complaints, given seven petitions, have even written to the Lieutenant Governor and Delhi government’s forest department,” says Amit Kumar, a resident of Dwarka Sector 8, who is leading the campaign against the felling of trees for a storm water drain project in this vast Delhi colony. “Dwarka is one of the most polluted areas in Delhi. There is only one park in Sector 8 that serves all its approximately 15,000 residents, which includes the nearby Bagdola village and Raj Nagar Part 2 as well. Earlier, a park was destroyed to make way for a sports…

Translated by Sandhya Raju இயந்திர வேகத்தில் சுழலும் கோட்டுர்புரத்தில், அங்கிருக்கும் மியாவாகி காடு ஒரு புதுவித அனுபவத்தையும் புத்துணர்ச்சியும் அளிப்பதாக உள்ளது. கடந்த பிப்ரவரி மாதம் ஒரு வருடத்தை எட்டியுள்ள இந்த நகர்புற காடு, 2019 ஆம் ஆண்டு சுமார் 1600 கழிவுகளை அப்புறப்படுத்தப்படுத்தி உருவாக்கப்பட்டது. 2000-த்திற்கும் மேற்பட்ட பல்வேறு மர வகைகள் இங்கு நடப்பட்டன. தற்போது செம்பருத்தி, பப்பாளி, முருங்கை என இந்த 2211.87 சதுர மீட்டர்** பரப்பளவு பசுமை போர்வையாக காட்சி அளிக்கிறது. மியாவாகி வகை காடுகள் நகரத்தில் மிகுந்த வரவேற்பை பெற்றுள்ளது. கோட்டுர்புரத்தில் முதலில் உருவாக்கப்பட்டு பின், சோளிங்கநல்லூர் , முகலிவாக்கம், ஒமந்தூர், அண்ணா இன்ஸ்டிடியூட் ஆப் மேனேஜ்மென்ட் கிரீன்வேஸ், மாதவரம் என 20 இடங்களில் சென்னை மாநகராட்சி நகர்புற காடுகளை உருவாக்கியுள்ளது. அந்தந்த பகுதிகளில் உள்ள் பொது மக்கள் மற்றும் துவக்கம், இன்னர் வீல் ஆஃப் மெட்ராஸ் போன்ற தன்னார்வ தொண்டு நிறுவனங்கள் ஆகியவை…

“Wetlands are seen as waste lands, to be encroached and built upon,” says Himanshu Thakkar, water expert and coordinator at SANDRP. “There is no effective legal protection for most of our wetlands. In fact, there are no updates on maps of wetlands. There is no system for clearance or monitoring when wetland components undergo a change.”   No wonder then that India is losing its wetlands at a rate of two to three per cent each year. Going by the Wetlands International South Asia (WISA) report, from 1970 to 2014, major cities that have reported a massive loss of wetlands.  are…

A multi-cause walk! What is that, you might ask. Well, I conducted one at Turahalli “Tree Park” (I have to put that odd name in inverted commas still!) on February 13. We have, for some time now, been protesting vigorously against the Karnataka Forest Department (KFD), who after already carving out a slice of the Turahalli forest and making a “Tree Park”, were proposing to make yet another one, with cement seats and play areas and sandpits, in the middle of the last standing piece of the once-majestic forest.  After strong protests, the KFD finally climbed down and said they…

It is a death no one will mourn. The Commission For Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the National Capital Region, created by an ordinance promulgated on October 28th,2020 — in fact  a super commission  that on paper subsumed all the other bodies involved in maintaining air quality in the NCR — was quietly disbanded, as the Ordinance lapsed. No bill to implement it was even introduced, let alone passed during the Parliament’s 2021 budget session. According to Press Trust of India, Union Environment Secretary R P Gupta said that since the ordinance was not introduced in Parliament within six weeks…

On February 25, 2021, plans were announced from the highest levels of the state government to comprehensively develop Nandi Hills as an international tourist destination. This is to be done through various measures including a clean-up of the area, refurbishment of various structures and heritage sites, enlargement/improvement of the parking areas, and last but not the least, a ropeway to the summit.   My family and I moved home from the heart of Bengaluru to the foothills of Nandi Hills over seven years ago. The contrast in our altered lifestyles could not have been starker. Swapping traffic noise for bird song We…

Another wetland in Navi Mumbai is under threat. Lotus Lake is located in Sector 27, Nerul, very close to the Belapur Sports Ground. The approximately 3-hectare lake derives its name from the thousands of lotus plants that can be seen on its surface, and in fact, lends its name to several shops and buildings in the area. Lotus Lake, Nerul. (Pic: Sunil Agarwal) A notified wetland, but only on paper As per the National Wetland Atlas, the lake is a notified wetland. In its January 2019 assessment, the Thane Tahsildar has marked the Lotus Lake coordinates, officially known as "Darawe",…