RESTORING BANGALORE ITS OLD GLORY

Every modern city today has to pay a heavy price for its galloping development. Rather than sit back and ruminate over Paradise Lost, CLEAN-India takes the initiative for a clean up! 

Bangalore - always known as “ the garden city of India” has also earned the sobriquet “Silicon Valley of India”, since it is seen as an IT hub and one of the fastest developing cities in Asia.  
 

But the city, in the process of getting to the top has paid a heavy price. As Mecca for software and other industries, there has been a great influx migrant population and this, together with the rise in developmental activities has put an enormous strain on the city’s natural resources. The existing and marginally improved infrastructure has not been able to meet the demands of the steady population growth and at the end of it all what we have today, is an uncontrolled, unplanned, chaotic  environment.

 
The problems faced by the Bangalore  municipality and the citizens are manifold, water supply and solid waste management are amongst the major ones. It is not uncommon to find pots and buckets queued up before a single tap in a neighbourhood or huge open garbage dumps in the outskirts of the city. The number of water sources for Bangalore has drastically come down over the years. The beautiful lakes that once adorned the city, have decreased from 250 to around 70.  

There was a time when the city used to gets its water from nearby sources but now it receives water from a distance of about 100 Km from the river Cauvery. This is because the sources close by have dried up while the quantity required has gone up several times. Indiscriminate felling of trees and changing land use patterns has been a major cause for the depletion of the water table. River Arkavathi, which used to be the major source for the city is now almost dry.  

Development, we all realise is a necessary evil, but surely we do not have to live with all its ill effects? Can we not do something to alleviate the state of affairs and improve our lifestyles?  

Against this given backdrop, Development Alternatives Bangalore, through its CLEAN-India programme ventured forth to make  the future citizens, the children, environmentally conscious so that they may lead sustainable lifestyles. The programme was initiated with three schools in 1999 and today it has a network of 15 schools. In addition to regular water and air monitoring programmes, the CLEAN students through several awareness activities learn about critical environmental issues. The topics covered in the awareness programmes vary from urban wildlife to medicinal plants to food adulteration and paper craft from waste. Surveys are carried out on the number of plastic bags coming into a house and the amount of water used or rather misused, to make them conscious of their own behaviour. 

The schools are encouraged to initiate more improvement action programmes. CLEAN-Bangalore programme has been able to set up rainwater harvesting demonstration units in three schools and develop complete harvesting systems in three other schools. Herbal gardens have been started in eight schools and vermicomposting has been introduced in four schools. Several tree-planting programmes have been organised including near the Arkavathi river bank and near Kanakapura in Bangalore rural district. 

As part of community action, CLEAN-Bangalore has been able to set up rainwater harvesting systems at Aishwarya Apartments, J.P. Nagar and APSA’s Dream School, Vimanapura. The CLEAN-Bangalore students of Innisfree House School and St. Joseph’s Indian High School designed their own rainwater harvesting units. Another community action that has been successfully initiated in association with T.Muniswamappa (CHECK SPELLING) Trust (which runs the Gurukul School, a CLEAN-Bangalore member) is a Solid Waste Management programme (Vermicomposting) at Avalahalli, Bangalore.  

Last year CLEAN-Bangalore initiated a novel programme in ten schools in Bangalore on e-waste. The toxic contents of e-waste such as lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame-retardants are potential environmental hazards if treated unscientifically or thrown with the normal waste. Collection, therefore, of dry cell batteries, floppies and CDs has started in schools as part of a larger programme to recycle e-waste. The e- waste collected will be recycled in a safe and systematic manner by e-parisara, an authorised recycling centre that can transport, process and recycle e-waste through environmentally acceptable methods in the outskirts of Bangalore.  

These are no doubt just small, initial steps taken to improve the environment and quality of life. But the micro venture hopefully, will gather momentum, more people will join in the programmes, there will be more awareness and ultimately the dream and vision of CLEAN-India will fan out to envelope larger areas. q 

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