Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

'Green' changes are sweeping the city

By Alladi Jayasri

BANGALORE Nov. 22. We have known for three decades that Bangalore is the fastest growing city in Asia. However, an account of just how the Garden City has lived up to its reputation as a place in which global citizens want to live, work, and more importantly, feel proud to belong to, makes for depressing reading. As for Bangaloreans, it is a bitter experience to watch their beloved city lose the tag of "air-conditioned city".

How did Bangalore become a place where a happy family gets drowned in a storm-water drain flooded by a thundershower? How did the roads that undulated gracefully on gentle slopes and raced towards a lake or a patch of greenery become a cocktail of smoke and noxious gases that aggravates allergies and make people vulnerable to a host of persistent health problems? Today, Bangalore suffers from every kind of pollution that makes city life a nightmare. Lack of foresight on the part of the administration and its failure to plan for Bangalore's growth a decade ago have taken the city to a point where any attempt at correction or remedy will be a case of "too little, too late".

However, all is not lost. The city's Pandora's box of environmental problems may be overflowing, but there are a fair number of initiatives that give hope. The civic and service agencies are looking at how to include the "war on pollution" in e-governance initiatives. The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is trying to set its house in order and become more effective in enforcing the laws.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board is addressing the problem of water pollution in a big way. There are projects to clean up the three valleys of Koramangala, Challaghatta, and Vrishabhavathy, where effluents and untreated sewage have caused untold damage. Tertiary treatment plants and recycling wastewater are initiatives that indicate that "green" changes are sweeping the city.

The KSPCB's Senior Environmental Officer, B. Ramaiah, says the long-held misconceptions about the board's role in pollution control have made it a favourite whipping boy. "Many believe it is the board's job to enforce the measures needed to change the environment," he says. The board is more than a little hamstrung - it lacks powers to enforce the measures it recommends. However, Mr. Ramaiah says that the greater involvement shown by the Transport and Police departments and the BWSSB to implement projects is a heartening development.

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