FOR A CLEANER TOMORROW: Schoolchildren participating in the planting ceremony of the Rashi Vana, a zodiac garden of medicinal plants, at Cubbon Park, in Bangalore to mark World Environment Day on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Did you know that the built-up area in the city has gone up by 62 per cent in the first six years of this millennium? Or that 24 per cent of the areas occupied by water bodies have disappeared and vegetation come down by 20 per cent?

These depressing statistics were released at a presentation by H.S. Sudhira, environmental engineer, who is studying the Bangalore's urban sprawl, here on Tuesday. The presentation coincided with the World Environment Day.

Mr. Sudhira, who traced the land use changes since 1791, said the city was adding 20 sq km of built-up or paved surface every year even as the green cover was coming down by 30 sq km every year. Water bodies were being lost a year was a little under 2 sq. km a year. That is equal to a mid-size lake.

The built-up area was a little over 180 sq. km in the year 2000 and it had gone up to 300 sq. km by 2006. The areas occupied by lakes had come down from 42 sq km to 32 sq km. Bangalore and its surroundings had 860 sq km of vegetation in 2000 but it had come down to 685 sq. km six years later.

Mr. Sudhira said these figures were arrived at after analysing the official statistics and those available with the National Remote Sensing Agency.

Lack of coordination

He blamed the lack of coordination among many agencies responsible for the city's planning for the phenomenon. He gave the example of the latest draft revised Master Plan for the city proposing to allow a sizeable chunk of the green belt for residential and commercial use.

The fact that seven agencies were given the responsibility of city's planning and execution of projects itself was also to blame. Inadequate planning, failure of citizens to adhere to bylaws and not involving people in the city's development were also to blame.

The solution lay in people and public agencies owning lands and trees, people and the Government breaking common ground and strengthening local bodies, besides ensuring coordination among different agencies.

Earlier, an exhibition of cartoons on the environment by Balraj K.N. was inaugurated. The exhibition is on for a week at the venue — Koshy's Chillout. One cartoon, apt for the occasion, showed a good old well presumably without water. Instead of the pulley, there was a board in bold that read: Not Well.

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