Environment

Bangalore is growing at an unprecedented rate,and its sprawling expansions outpaces the public utility's ability to accommodate the skyrocketing demand for water and sanitation services. It is increasingly common for new residential communities to assume total management for their own water and sanitation services through the resident welfare associations. Most of these depend on borewells and tankers, which they sooner or later realise is not a sustainable option. Groundwater recharge, one of the forms of rainwater harvesting, can be instrumental in achieving long-term water security. By taking water out of over-stressed storm drains and replenishing them into shallow aquifers, groundwater…

BBMP health inspectors conducted a major drive against use of plastic on Whitefield Main Road (Hagadur ward) on Saturday 21-May-2016. Plastic material was seized from several shops in Forum Value Mall. The drive was led by BBMP officials Vinodh Govindappa and Prakash KN Gowda. They worked tirelessly from 11 am to 5 pm without a lunch break, seizing around 600 kg of plastic. Penalty of Rs. 1.84 lakh was levied. Despite a relentless campaign by Whitefield Rising volunteers in the last two months, starting with a traders and Corporator meeting near Forum Value Mall, and despite the mall's management giving notices,…

BBMP health inspectors conducted a major drive against use of plastic on Whitefield Main Road (Hagadur ward) on Saturday 21-May-2016. Plastic material was seized from several shops in Forum Value Mall. The drive was led by BBMP officials Vinodh Govindappa and Prakash KN Gowda. They worked tirelessly from 11 am to 5 pm without a lunch break, seizing around 600 kg of plastic. Penalty of Rs. 1.84 lakh was levied. Despite a relentless campaign by Whitefield Rising volunteers in the last two months, starting with a traders and Corporator meeting near Forum Value Mall, and despite the mall's management giving notices,…

We had good rainfall (1000mm plus on an average) in 2015. Yet, this summer was harsh for everyone. Would it have helped if we had harvested rainwater? The primary analysis from the project area (Yamalur watershed) observes that there is enough water available for everyone if we do rainwater harvesting leaving excess water to go to the lakes and/or groundwater recharge.   A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to a common outlet. Biome Trust has been involved in an action research project called Particpatory…

In the run up to the TCS World 10K which happened on May 15th, Citizen Matters was looking for runners who we could collaborate with to raise funds for our journalism. And now that the run is over, we couldn't have asked for a better set of people to collaborate with. With their help, we managed to raise Rs 2.21 lakh in a span of a month for the journalism on Citizen Matters. Thank you, all of you for being a part of our fundraising.    The TCS World 10K is over, as are the runners' campaigns, but Citizen Matters…

I'm sure all of us have read a fair number of posts about the negative effects of gaming (it promotes violence and a desire to drag people out of their cars and beat them up, apparently. We kids have brains too, you know! And if you say otherwise, I'll shoot you! I saw it in a videogame!). People quite entirely ignore the positive effects of gaming in these posts. So, to counterbalance all the flak gaming's been getting, here's a little bit about the good side of gaming.  Now, I'm sure all of us have heard of this one before,…

We had good rainfall (1000mm plus on an average) in 2015. Yet, this summer was harsh for everyone. Would it have helped if we had harvested rainwater? The primary analysis from the project area (Yamalur watershed) observes that there is enough water available for everyone if we do rainwater harvesting leaving excess water to go to the lakes and/or groundwater recharge.   A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to a common outlet. Biome Trust has been involved in an action research project called Particpatory…

In the run up to the TCS World 10K which happened on May 15th, Citizen Matters was looking for runners who we could collaborate with to raise funds for our journalism. And now that the run is over, we couldn't have asked for a better set of people to collaborate with. With their help, we managed to raise Rs 2.21 lakh in a span of a month for the journalism on Citizen Matters. Thank you, all of you for being a part of our fundraising.    The TCS World 10K is over, as are the runners' campaigns, but Citizen Matters…

I'm sure all of us have read a fair number of posts about the negative effects of gaming (it promotes violence and a desire to drag people out of their cars and beat them up, apparently. We kids have brains too, you know! And if you say otherwise, I'll shoot you! I saw it in a videogame!). People quite entirely ignore the positive effects of gaming in these posts. So, to counterbalance all the flak gaming's been getting, here's a little bit about the good side of gaming.  Now, I'm sure all of us have heard of this one before,…

On the evening on May 12th, raw sewage gushed in from the eastern inlet for nearly 3 hours into Kaikondrahalli lake. With help from BBMP labourers provided by BBMP lakes Engineer Shilpa, and with many of the lake visitors and volunteers staying back at night to oversee the work, we could partially block the inlet. The blocking at the inlet was reinforced in the morning, but sewage continues to trickle in. With a JCB borrowed from Bren Construction, we tried to block the main source of the sewage inflow, but had to re-open it soon as the land owner and…