“Tree falling: natural or man-made?”

September 28, 2024April 13, 2025Dr V Selvarajan Leave a comment

‘Massive tree falls on a car’ the caption is almost a daily affair in any newspaper, especially during the rainy season. Whenever some car is damaged or someone gets severely wounded, the usual mudslinging game starts. The municipality is at fault, according to a resident always. Why does a tree fall? It may be due to various reasons. One excuse is that the tree has become old. Sometimes, termites kill a tree. Mostly the falling of a tree is during a monsoon time. Heavy rains, cyclones, or floods may uproot a tree. While natural disasters are also mostly due to human apathy, this may be excused as acts of God and beyond control.

But man-made tree falls cannot be exempted. India has been losing its forest cover drastically over the last few years. Urbanization has taken a heavy toll on urban green cover. Bangalore, once lauded as a garden city has shed its tag now. Some signature trees are seen here and there. But the age-old trees are falling victim to the axes of the Municipality which once felt proud of greening the city. About two years back, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) went for a massive plantation along the roadsides. The same BBMP is cutting huge branches of well-grown trees as they are creating impediments to traffic. In some of the main roads like Palace Road, trees were felled to expand the roads. It is not just Bangalore that has lost its charm. Many cities face the same fate. Deeply concerned residents raise their voices against felling here and there. But authorities do not seem to heed to the feeble voice of the people.

Why do trees fall suddenly? During a recent tree-falling incident, residents insisted that the white topping was the major reason. White topping is a technique used to resurface roads by laying a layer of Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) on top of an existing road. It is claimed that white topping is a long-term solution for strengthening or rehabilitating roads and is often used to address potholes and poor drainage. For instance, on the road from Mekhri Circle to IISC in Bangalore, where white topping was attempted, there was no need to axe the trees, as the purpose was not road expansion, but to strengthen the road. The authorities made a grave mistake. Similarly, in Delhi, the Delhi Tree Preservation Act advocates a penalty for concretization of the tree base. Trees lose their breathing space because of the cementing of the base. Cutting off the taproots or secondary roots while laying underground cables destabilizes trees. Sometimes, nailing the barks to fix the ad boards weakens the trees or tying serial lights to decorate places like banquet halls and malls. We only blame the authorities vehemently but when it comes to civic responsibilities, the common man is also to blame as he lacks civic sense. Road widening for infra projects has become a major excuse for uprooting well-grown trees. The tree falling is primarily a man-made activity but the blame is shifted to natural calamity conveniently. Nature obviously will take its toll if she is not cared for properly. (Courtesy: Representative picture from the internet)

‘Rain! Rain! When will you come again’

March 25, 2024Dr V Selvarajan Leave a comment

Published in Dwarka Express on 9.3.24

Bangalore has gone dry! All WhatsApp groups are busy with myriad number of forwards on water woes, and the worst part is, the same video clip is forwarded 3 or 4 times in the same group same day. An otherwise oblivious Bengalurian has suddenly become water cognizant. In his routine busy schedule, he may not even recollect when it was last raining. Yes, there is a long dry spell. Precisely, it was on 6^th November, 2023, when there was a heavy downpour in Bengaluru. After that, sadly, not even a remote sign of rain! It is the impact of climate change, grumbles someone. Whether climate change or otherwise, it is true that something is happening, maybe perhaps a fall out of El nino situation. Chennai is also under dry spell after the worst monsoon spell. South Bangalore is in worse situation. Some RWAs have issued circulars to the residents to cut the water usage by 20%. Security guards are deployed to check the misuse. It is given to understand that one RWA has instructed using disposable cutleries, without realizing that the disposables will increase the trash especially single use plastic (SUP). There is already a ban on SUPs.

Bangalore has two major sources of potable water. One is from river Cauvery, i.e., 1450 million per day (MLD) and another one is nearly half of it from ground water from borewells. With both north east and southwest monsoon failed, the state is running short of water. The capacity of Cauvery reservoir is reduced by 50%. Out of about 17000 borewells, almost 7000 are dried out already with the result the residents are left with no other option except to buy water from tankers. The tanker mafia has hiked the water charges to 4 times already. The state govt is going from pillar to post to quench the thirst of the Bengalurians. Even milk lorries are diverted for sourcing water from rural areas.

Lack of proper rain water harvesting, raising encroachments in the lakes and unmindful felling of trees only add fuel to the fire. As the population of the city is growing exponentially, the demand for subsistence needs a lot of expert planning. Urban planning expertise encompasses all aspects which include environmental care as well as infra development. Sustainable development is jeopardized by half baked projects, populist schemes and vote bank politics. Bangalore is not an isolated case. The last decade has witnessed sea change in growth. This in fact has affected the popular tag of retirees’ paradise status. If situation worsens, the city will lose its charm and will no more be preferred destination. Someone is proclaiming that it is all due to mushrooming of IT companies. Superficially, it looks correct but it needs further study as the economic impact of MNCs and IT Companies cannot be ignored. It is true that every Bengalurian gazes at the passing clouds daily with an appeal to Rain God to show mercy. This is just March beginning. Another two months will witness impatient waiting to get a respite from scotching sun. Though the mercury has touched 34 degrees in Bangalore, a Delhiite perhaps may be grinning as he has to brave the annual ritual of 46 degrees in April – June.

Sand & Soil, one steals, another dumps

December 17, 2023December 20, 2023Dr V Selvarajan Leave a comment

World Soil Day was celebrated only on 5^th Dec 2023. And the theme of the year is “Soil and water, a source of life” So what? International Days come and go. Celebrations keep going. We mark the day with runs and rides with banners wearing t-shirts. But soil or water…, are we serious to preserve them? To form one inch topsoil, it takes 100-1000 years. Sand mining is one that we hear quite often. No Indian River is liberated from illegal sand mining. Wherever revenue or police authorities intervene, the sand mafia goes underground for sometimes but re-emerge to continue their crazy business. In Tamil Nadu, the sand theft is quite common and is known by its notorious name manal_kollai, meaning sand theft. Politicians and contractors join hands to continue their activity thus destroying riverbeds and seashores despite the hue and cry.

While sand theft continues unabated on the one hand, Bengaluru has a inimitable experience of soil dumping. Bengaluru is growing fast and the population has already breached one core mark. Still the hunt for land is going on as many wants to settle down in Bangalore. Clandestine efforts are on by the land mafia to grab the lake beds. Vanishing lakes is a major concern and the locals here and there are vehemently trying to save the left-out lakes in their proximity.

A recent revelation at Hennagara lake near to Electronics city is shocking. It is reported that the Hennagara lake falls under gram panchayat in South Bangalore. South Bangalore is a home for MNCs known for the software export. Construction activity is endless and search for sites to build multi stories and villas is continuing. The only space left out inside the city is lake which becomes easy victim for the craze. The Govt map like Dishank app is also misleading occasionally as the survey numbers are wrongly marked in the official map as private land. Every lake has a buffer zone of 30 meters, where construction activities are banned. But if the lakes are also wrongly marked where is the question of buffer zones? During the last one year, it is reported that about 10000 trucks have dumped soil in the 330-acre Hennagara lake. At this rate the lake will soon disappear. Hennagara is not the only one being dumped. Many attempts are made in the past by authorities even to dump waste and soil. Belandur and Varthur lakes are such notable victims. Kempe Gowda, the founder of the Bengaluru city was a visionary as he created innumerable tanks called kere in Kannada which even after a few centuries are coming handy for the city to recharge the ground water besides keeping the city green and cool. But at this rate of vanishing lakes, the day is not far off that the garden city will face the heat spell and raising pollution. Environmentalists warn that the city will lose its waterbodies soon if timely corrective measures to protect the lakes and their feeder canals known as Rajakaluves.