Environment

Floods in Bengaluru make for big headlines. The plight of monkeys rarely does. In this case, the particular species named Bonnet Macaques, which can usually be seen in the vicinity of the city's temples. As the city's urban sprawl spreads inexorably, natural habitats of many species are getting overrun. Monkey habitats are one such. Causing what some Bengalureans call the monkey menace. Meaning when they spot a monkey sitting outside their apartment's kitchen window in search of food. A Scroll report, citing the work of Mewa Singh of the University of Mysore and HN Kumara of Salim Ali Centre for…

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On 30th August, a resident of Rainbow Drive, a layout on Sarjapur Road, passed away as he could not get to a hospital in time. His community had been flooded and its residents marooned for hours during which even tractors could not reach them. On 5th September after the heavy overnight rains of up to 90 mm, residents of this area and the larger Sarjapur Road-Outer Ring Road area continue to suffer, with large sections of even main roads inundated. Rainbow Drive is one of the parts of the city that has had far too many trysts with flooding. Even…

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""Kitne aadmi the?" The scene featuring Gabbar Singh's famous question in Sholay has a rarely noticed sideshow. A small lizard scampering across the rocky terrain of Ramanagara, located just outside Bengaluru, where the iconic movie was filmed. That lizard is the Peninsular Rock Agama, or Psammophilus dorsalis, which can be found today mainly in Bengaluru's rocky outskirts. The city's ever expanding urbanisation has not only altered natural landscapes in its wake, but also destroyed habitats of species like the Rock Agama lizard. And although not endangered, the Peninsular Rock Agama is no longer a common sight across the city as…

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The movement to save Aarey forest - known as Mumbai's green lungs - from construction activities has awakened again. Every Sunday the area is packed with protestors sloganeering, holding placards, and shouting anthems of resistance. What best encapsulates the sentiment on the ground are the first two lines of the song 'Aarey chi Kalji', which went viral recently: "Sarkar yeil sarkar jaail jhaad tu todu nako, ugaach kamal gheoon haataat Aarey la chedu nako" (Governments will come and go, do not cut our trees. Holding a lotus in your hand, do not play with our Aarey.) Writing on the wall near the road…

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Pallikaranai marshland has become the first wetland in Chennai to get the Ramsar tag in July 2022. The award of the Ramsar tag is part of UNESCO's Ramsar Convention, which is an intergovernmental treaty aimed to conserve wetlands. India has been a party to the treaty since 1982. While this is welcome news, Pallikaranai has also seen a lot of damage over the years, despite being a "protected zone" as per the Tamil Nadu Forest Act. From 2,650 hectares, the wetland has shrunk to around 700 hectares, thanks to encroachments by government and private entities, garbage dumping, leakage of untreated…

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Stepping into the 76th year of Independence, India now has 75 wetlands that have got the coveted Ramsar site tag. After a gap of 20 years, Tamil Nadu has got the Ramsar tag for 13 wetlands across the State in 2022. This makes Tamil Nadu the State with the highest number of Ramsar sites in India.  Pallikaranai marshland in Chennai has become the first wetland in the city to get the Ramsar tag. What is a Ramsar site? A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, also known as "The Convention…

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On July 1st 2022, Mumbai introduced a brand new plastic ban along with the rest of the country. 21 selected single-use plastic (SUP) items were outlawed for their low utility and high littering potential. These include disposable cutlery, plastic sticks for candies, ice cream and balloons, plastic flags, thermocol for decoration and carry bags under 75 microns thick. Come January 2023, the minimum thickness required for plastic bags will increase to 120 microns.  But Mumbai has been under a far more extensive plastic ban since June 2018. Most of the products on the newly banned list have not been allowed for manufacture, transport, storage…

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If Bengaluru wants to maintain its last remaining lakes and trees, citizens need to take an active interest in preserving them. If the last decade is any indication, collaborations between BBMP and citizen-led groups have led to the revival of many of its lakes. Here is how a group of dedicated activists/citizens have been maintaining their neighbourhood lake along with the trees in the surroundings. First the lake, then the trees Lower Ambalipura Lake is a seven-acre lake with two acres of wetland. The water body is surrounded by apartments - SJR Redwoods, SJR Park Vista, Mantri Flora and Trinity…

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In April 2022, several images of dead fish floating in the Banganga tank, located in Mumbai’s Malabar hill area, circulated on news sites and social media platforms. Clean up efforts were initiated after locals observed the dead fish in the tank and informed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The contractor appointed for the clean-up claimed that four trucks of fish were removed from the site. Officials speculated that the loss of oxygen was the likely cause of the mass fish deaths. This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred. Mass fish death in the Banganga tank has been labelled…

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Chennai’s recent history is marked by a string of disastrous weather events, particularly floods. The city’s water woes are not new, but the erratic nature and increased frequency of floods and droughts have raised questions regarding its in a climatically unstable world and what resilience might look like in the future. A large number of initiatives under ‘Climate Adaptation’ and ‘Urban Resilience’ have been mooted, and designed by bureaucrats, technical experts and consultants. These responses range from watershed management to urban development schemes to ecological restoration of waterbodies. But the story of top-down climate adaptation measures has less to do…

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