Environment

Monday, May 9th brought us a surprise - the Commissioner for SWM Bangalore, Subodh Yadav was coming to Ward 80 for an interaction with RWA’s, residents and civic officials. I say surprise, because we were told at 7.30 am on Monday that we had to be present at 9 am. However, Yadav’s office had informed BBMP officials three days earlier! It was an interesting event - many of us were meeting him for the first time. Unfortunately it was a meeting without a preset agenda, perhaps the whole plan of local officials. The menace of Indira Nagar’s garbage was discussed,…

With the rains on their way in, it's a good time to clean up our rainwater filters, sumps and recharge wells.Lately we have received a lot of queries on how to go about with ground water recharge. Groundwater recharge can be achieved by digging recharge wells and redirecting rainwater into them.  Below are the phone numbers of some of the well diggers who can dig wells upto 40 ft deep Krishna : 99862-03022 Pedanna : 97424-23145 Antony: 80507-95139, 90357-10920, 9100691501 Kanthappa: 99169-85003 Muniyappa: 94485-70684 Mohan: 99869-22193 This brochure also provides some information on the process of locating and digging the…

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…

Monday, May 9th brought us a surprise - the Commissioner for SWM Bangalore, Subodh Yadav was coming to Ward 80 for an interaction with RWA’s, residents and civic officials. I say surprise, because we were told at 7.30 am on Monday that we had to be present at 9 am. However, Yadav’s office had informed BBMP officials three days earlier! It was an interesting event - many of us were meeting him for the first time. Unfortunately it was a meeting without a preset agenda, perhaps the whole plan of local officials. The menace of Indira Nagar’s garbage was discussed,…

With the rains on their way in, it's a good time to clean up our rainwater filters, sumps and recharge wells.Lately we have received a lot of queries on how to go about with ground water recharge. Groundwater recharge can be achieved by digging recharge wells and redirecting rainwater into them.  Below are the phone numbers of some of the well diggers who can dig wells upto 40 ft deep Krishna : 99862-03022 Pedanna : 97424-23145 Antony: 80507-95139, 90357-10920, 9100691501 Kanthappa: 99169-85003 Muniyappa: 94485-70684 Mohan: 99869-22193 This brochure also provides some information on the process of locating and digging the…

This Mother's Day, remember the “mother of all battles” that happened in Bengaluru some weeks ago? No, it was not fought on a cricket pitch. Rather, it involved moms who were part of a common forum on Facebook--a group called Mums of Bangalore (MoB, the acronym, turned out to be prescient, in more ways than one). Moms fought with each other. Local moms took on “outsiders” (including the group-founder) for disrespecting the local language, and being disinclined to learn the language of the place they live/work in. There was slander, much shaming, and slurs hurled back and forth. And of course,…

This Mother's Day, remember the “mother of all battles” that happened in Bengaluru some weeks ago? No, it was not fought on a cricket pitch. Rather, it involved moms who were part of a common forum on Facebook--a group called Mums of Bangalore (MoB, the acronym, turned out to be prescient, in more ways than one). Moms fought with each other. Local moms took on “outsiders” (including the group-founder) for disrespecting the local language, and being disinclined to learn the language of the place they live/work in. There was slander, much shaming, and slurs hurled back and forth. And of course,…

The morning of April 23rd saw around 25 residents of Mahadevapura Zone coming together in support of the anti-plastic ban. Volunteers of Whitefield Rising visited dozens of shops on Borewell Road, creating awareness about plastic and Styrofoam menace. During the drive, BBMP officials seized disposable material from shops that were selling or using them despite the ban. "This was the fifth such drive in Hagadur (Ward 84) within a month. As part of this campaign, we educate traders about the banned items and available alternatives," said Vaibhav Jain, a Whitefield Rising volunteer. "Excessive use of plastic leads to land, water…

The morning of April 23rd saw around 25 residents of Mahadevapura Zone coming together in support of the anti-plastic ban. Volunteers of Whitefield Rising visited dozens of shops on Borewell Road, creating awareness about plastic and Styrofoam menace. During the drive, BBMP officials seized disposable material from shops that were selling or using them despite the ban. "This was the fifth such drive in Hagadur (Ward 84) within a month. As part of this campaign, we educate traders about the banned items and available alternatives," said Vaibhav Jain, a Whitefield Rising volunteer. "Excessive use of plastic leads to land, water…

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams Sripadaraya (1422-1480) is believed to have laid the foundation of the Haridasa movement in Karnataka. He was a teacher of the Madhavacharya school of philosophy. He was the advisor to one of the kings of the Vijayayanagara empire, Saluva Narasimha. Sripadaraya expressed his lofty thoughts through his songs and poems using colloquial Kannada which resonated with the common man. In a harikatha performance of Haridasa compositions today, the invocation usually begins with a tribute to this saint. He used rangavittala as his nom de plume in his devarnamas. Here is…