Skip to main content

Bengaluru's growth is irreversible


Bengaluru needed a plan in place in early 1990s when we knew we would reach this stage in urbanisation. How come we woke only now?
Pic: Ameen Ahmed (All rights reserved)
I recollect those frequent return daily train trips between Tumakuru - Bengaluru between 1999-2002. All the discarded radio sets were slowly crawling back thanks to the couple of private FM channels that broadcast the latest songs. The Kannada Sanghas were equally active even back then. The newspapers would frequently report their demonstrations against the handful of FM radio stations airing Hindi songs that catered to the large influx of non-Kannadiga techies immigrating into the yet Garden City. The Arasikere-Bengaluru passenger train would slow down as it approached Yeshvantpur Junction. Mathikere tank adjoining the railway track to the north was still a decent wetland. I remember sighting flocks of Purple Moorhens running over the hyacinth leaves. And also the migratory waders from far off lands in a feeding frenzy on its shores. And one of those days I noticed people dumping garbage and construction debris in it. The pace increased over days and months. The huts came up then. One a day. Two a day. No one to stop. Last week I took a train trip from Tumakuru to Bengaluru after about 8 years since my last one. I saw this tank again and I wished I had not done so.

As 2000 passed, Bengaluru ate away all its sand and much of timber. In our drives around Tumakuru and neighbouring districts we could see the day light looting of the resources- chiefly sand and timber, for the buildings coming up in Bengaluru. Around the same time hundreds of thousands of mature indigenous British-era trees were chopped for Atal Bihari Vajapayee's pet NH Golden Quadrilateral project across the country, Bengaluru being no exception. Many of them ended up in newly set up brick kilns, some of them not far from the highways. The kilns were churning out bricks for a city that was engulfed in a construction frenzy.

Another British-era roadside tree that was felled for the expansion of National Highway No: 4 near Dobbspet in Nelamangala Taluk, Bengaluru District 
Pic: Ameen Ahmed (All rights reserved)
Things started slowly appearing in the media in 2007-08 when villagers in neighbouring districts realised there was no sand in their streams and with that no water as well. People died as well, after sand caved in near many villages nullahs and water courses The trickle of sand laden lorries had turned into a torrent towards Bangalore. The demand was insatiable. Every one benefited. Yes, every one, including me. The sand in one of those lorries must have also been used for the construction of my apartment in 2002-03. The beneficiaries of this could also be many of our new tree huggers planning their next protest against the steel flyover.

Bengaluru needed a plan in place in early 1990s or at least in the mid-1990s when we knew we would reach this stage in urbanisation. How come we woke only now? Are we going to stop every new road expansion project in the city? Should the city's development come to a grinding halt just because we have realised our folly now? This steel bridge is an alarm call but it is not the last. No change in Governments can stop urbanisation. It is irreversible.

Yes. The process of improving public transport and universal access to it can (and should) be fastened. The weaning away from private vehicles to public transport should be gradual and time bound. The civil society can (may be it should) take a lead in it by ensuring vultures out to score political brownies are kept at a distance. Will it happen now when it has not happened in the last 20 - 25 years? Well, we can always try.

RELATED STORIES:
Bangalore’s missing grasslands
Tigers in Bangalore in the Colonial era
Conservation of Devarayanadurga forest over the centuries
Devarayanadurga’s big game in legends and shikar tales
My Devarayanadurga
Wilderness Areas of Tumkur 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking time to read our blog and commenting on it.

Popular posts from this blog

Conservation of Devarayanadurga forest over the centuries

This is an unedited version of the story that was published in two parts* in the Deccan Herald, Bangalore, in Aug-Sep 2014. A view of Devarayanadurga forests ©Ameen Ahmed (All rights reserved) Located a stone’s throw distance from Tumkur city towards east atop one of the many hills of the metamorphic Closepet granite chain that runs, often breaking in between, from Hospet in north Karnataka to Yellandur near Chamarajanagar town in south is the picturesque Devarayanadurga village. It is a place which gives a sense of joy to varied people. To a Hindu pilgrim it is abode of the many gods well-known of which is Lord Narasimhaswamy. To a history buff, it is home to structures like the Devarayanadurga fort which is eye witness to the happenings here for the last few centuries. For a meditator, the ambience of the place at a height of almost 4,000 feet above sea level is perfect to spend some peaceful moments away from the noisy and polluted cities. Devarayanadurga village was the seat...
2 comments
Read more

How forest friendly is Karnataka's Wind Energy?

Posted on 10 July 2007. Updated with google maps on 5 June 2013. A view of one of the hills carved up for wind farms and electricity transmission lines, seen from the Sri Rangapatna - Bidar State Highway No: 19 (proposed National Highway^) just north of Huliyar Town along Chitradurga - Tumkur districts' border. For quite some time, renewable energy sources have been touted to be a viable alternative to coal energy that causes global warming and hydro energy that drowns prime forests. To encourage renewable energy production, the Government is aggressively pushing wind energy production. But these days, wind farms are being set up by businessmen whose main concern is profit making and not nature conservation. Tens of thousands of wind turbines and electric power transmission lines have sprouted all over south India, particularly in the immediate vicinity of Western Ghats. Among the areas where wind turbines have been erected in Karnataka are the hills and highlands of eas...
6 comments
Read more

Tigers in Bangalore in the Colonial era

A version of this story 'The last of Bengaluru’s tigers' was published in 'India Today' in December 2014 A sketch of a British hunter on a tiger shikar (hunt). Source :  Arthur J. O. Pollock, ' Sporting days in Southern India',  1894.  In the 19th century the tiger was no stranger to undivided Bengaluru district which included today’s Ramanagar district. There are many accounts in the British literature on the presence of this magnificent cat here. Bengaluru figures prominently in the shikar literature as it was an important cantonment during the entire stretch of the British rule here which started with the annihilation of the Mysore army in 1799. The city was surrounded by open areas that had grasslands and the wildlife depending on it like blackbuck, lesser florican and great Indian bustard. Nevertheless, big cats like tigers and leopards thrived in pockets of woods in and around the city. Tiger killing, a public amusement in early 1800s Among the ...
Post a Comment
Read more