Credit: sandra1219.tumblr.com
Forests/Wildlife
I live in a concrete maze that boasts a few yards of curbed open space and calibrated greenery. High-rises clutter the view of sky; pigeons and mynahs rule the roofs. Urban wildlife often feels incongruous, surreal. A praying mantis sheltering from lashing rain makes the windowsill suddenly more meaningful, though that is not its purpose….
Read More about Priya Rajan: A window as wide as the world
Consumerism/Lifestyle
Devinder Sharma writes: This year, nearly 82% of Karnataka is reeling under drought. But in Bangalore, you won’t get even a hint of the terrible human suffering that continues to be inflicted year after year. Karnataka has suffered drought for 12 out of the past 18 years. But life in Bangalore has never been affected….
Read More about We have drought-proofed our cities, and left farms and farmers to die
Bookshelf
From Nature: In this in depth investigation of India’s feeble fight against consumerist waste, are robust statistics, compelling history and telling case studies. The authors, anthropologist Assa Doron and historian Robin Jeffrey, also throw the occasional philosophical curve ball, such as: “waste is in the eye of the beholder”. The result is both beguiling and disturbing….
Read More about Growth and garbage: A tour of India’s waste mountain
Conserve/Resist
From BBC: Cape Town is in the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to face the threat of running out of drinking water. But Cape Town is just the tip of the iceberg. Here are the 11 other cities worldwide that are most likely to run out of water….
Read More about Cape Town is running out of water. Guess who’s next?
A recent IISc study showed a shocking 88% decline in green spaces in Bangalore
Development/Growth
We tend to think that nature and cities are polar opposites. Delhi’s steadily worsening ‘airpocalypse’ only reinforces this binary. But this wasn’t always so. In her book ‘Nature in the City’, Harini Nagendra takes a deep dive into Bangalore’s ecological history, going way back in the past to the 6th century CE, with surprising results….
Read More about When cities were Nature’s haven: a tale from BangaloreDevelopment/Growth
From Hindustan Times: The NGT has repeatedly criticised Bengaluru’s civic authorities this year for letting the city’s water bodies become toxic waste dumps. The central body could find similarly mistreated lakes in countless Indian cities, where wetlands are being lost due to urbanisation, changes in land use and pollution. What lakes have survived are shrinking….
Read More about From Bangalore to Srinagar, India’s lakes are dead in the water
Representative image
Food/Farming
Devinder Sharma writes: The development process is so designed that cities have been made drought proof over the years… Life in the mega city does not even provide an inkling of a severe drought prevailing everywhere in the state, where as many as 139 of the 176 taluks have been declared drought hit this year….
Read More about How come Bangalore doesn’t give an inkling of the severe drought in its backyard?
Sandeep Anirudhan addresses the audience at an Aikyam event
ALTERNATIVES
On the first anniversary of Bangalore’s Aikyam Community for Sustainable Living, founder Sandeep Anirudhan travels back in time to recollect the journey that led to a different approach to building sustainability awareness. ‘The biggest realisation was that there was no isolated solution for any of the problems we face, because everything is connected’, he writes….
Read More about How I became a bankrupt monk: My journey towards building an eco-conscious communityConflict/Dispossession
Deepa Bhasthi writes in The Guardian: The illegal dumping of waste mixed with mass untreated sewage in Bangalore is creating a water crisis which threatens residents’ health–and is causing the city’s famous lakes to catch fire. This is the new story of the city, which some scientists believe will be “unliveable” in a few years….
Read More about City of burning lakes: experts fear Bangalore will be uninhabitable by 2025
Consumerism/Lifestyle
Wildlife biologist Nisarg Prakash writes: After a flare-up in my depression and increasingly erratic behaviour, I was shunted out from a landscape that I once knew like the back of my hand. It was here that I’d retreated to the land, to the hills, valleys and streams as a poultice for the cuts and bruises….
Read More about The mind’s river: How a life along the Cauvery stilled my anxietiesConsumerism/Lifestyle
Rahul Chandran writes: A resident, who did not wish to be identified, talks about certain benches where the maids and drivers were not allowed to sit. “We had one more rule earlier— now its scrapped— the maids are not supposed to travel in the passenger lift, they were supposed to travel in the service lift.”…
Read More about This gated community in Bangalore epitomises urban India’s class divide
Image from an IISc study showing sharp (88%) decline in Bangalore's vegetation
Bookshelf
Samar Halarnkar writes: In Nature in the City, her evocative exploration of Bangalore’s natural history, Harini Nagendra, says, “… residents engaged in practices such as placing a plate of warm rice (often with ghee added) outside to feed crows, leaving water baths for birds in the summer, and sugar and milk for ants and reptiles.”…
Read More about The end of nature: Why India is becoming a drier, hotter and angrier countryCLIMATE CRISIS
Yesterday, with protests over the Cauvery water dispute bringing Bangalore to its knees, many of the city’s techno-optimists found themselves stranded on its burning roads, like bunnies caught in headlights. It might just be another sign that ‘life as we know it’ is about to change forever, both in India and the world, writes Vijay Kundaji….
Read More about A ‘time-lapse’ view of the water wars, in Bangalore (and soon, the world)
Development/Growth
The de-greening of India’s cities is creating water-starved heat-islands. Bangalore may be India’s most drastic example, but the short-sighted assault on greenery is nationwide. Projections show that in 2030, Kolkata’s vegetation cover will be just 3.37% (from 34% in 1980), Ahmedabad’s 3% (from 37% in 1990) and Bangalore’s 14% by 2020 (from 46% in 1992)….
Read More about The dying gulmohars of Bangalore and urban India’s forbidding future
IISc
Development/Growth
Recent research by IISc reveals startling numbers on Bangalore’s reckless urbanization and its consequences: during 1973–2016 (1005% concretization or increase of paved surface) has had a telling influence on the natural resources, such as decline in green spaces (88% decline in vegetation), wetlands (79% decline), higher air pollutants and a sharp decline in groundwater table….
Read More about Red alert: India’s technology capital headed for system failureCLIMATE CRISIS
Inviting you to participate in the Climate महा सत्संग (Maha-Satsang) A part of Indian Youth Climate Network’s ‘Climate Catalysts 2014‘ event Dates: 30th August & 31st August, 2014. Time: 09:30- 18:30 Venue: Paradigm Shift, 8, 80 Feet Road, 4th Block, Koramangala (Bangalore) About the event: The primary focus of the workshops is on students and…
Read More about Event: Climate Maha Satsang, Bangalore
