Articles by Josephine Joseph

A sacred fig tree used as a place of worship. Pic: currentconservation.org It is a common sight to see a tree protruding onto a pavement, often onto the street and sometimes even acting as a divider in the centre of the road. These are trees that have survived the axe-happy city-planning authorities just by their nature of being classified culturally as Sacred Trees. Divya Gopal, Harini Nagendra elaborate on the importance of these trees and the reasons they have survived the onslaught of development in the city, in an article, Sacred trees in the urban landscape of Bangalore, India, published…

Cyclists have been a part of the commuter fabric for decades now, from the milkman, newspaper boy, postman, students and others. Though there is no record of the exact number of cyclists commuting to work, the last couple of years have seen a new wave of bicycle riders earning the city of Bengaluru the title — “Cycle Capital of India.” The cycling activities in the city include weekend long distance cycling, adventure cycling, awareness creation etc. Many of these riders have become full-fledged commuter cyclists. There has been a change in perception and acceptance of this small but significant group.…

In Bengaluru, vehicular pollution and dust are the major contributors to air pollution, and as listed earlier in this series, they cause several health and environmental problems. While the dust is mostly from construction activities, the air currents and constant vehicular motion keep the pollutants in circulation all the time. There is no single solution to mitigate air pollution given the number of government agencies involved and the heterogenous mix of vehicle users and commuters. In this article, we look at the role individual road users play. On an average, 6734 BMTC buses ferry 49,50,000 passengers in 79677 bus trips…

Vehicular traffic causes maximum air pollution in Bangalore city. Benagluru’s air may not be the most polluted in the country, but it is among the top 15 polluted cities in the country with its particulate matter increasing over the years and nitrogen dioxide levels way above permissible limits. It is a known fact that the transport sector is a major contributor to air pollution in the city with the vehicular population inching towards 50 lakh vehicles on the roads. Ozone, carbon, ions, molecular markers of particulate matter, sulphates are significantly high at many locations were studies have been conducted. In…

If the namma Bengaluru's commuters were asked to ‘red flag’ a few of the city’s roads, the chances are that Suranjan Das Road would be among the top three. This 3.95 km ‘nightmare’ as commuters call it does more than connecting Old Madras to the Old Airport Road. It is the exit road for all the areas around it like Jeevanbhima Nagar, Thippasandra, B M Kaval, C V Raman Nagar, Kaggadasapura and Vimanapura. The road also has on both sides private companies, public sector establishments and educational institutes and therefore has thousands of commuters converging in throughout the day. The…

Ever-increasing traffic adds to pollution and emission. File pic. It is difficult to choose between a hot dry summer day and the day after a nice shower in Bengaluru, when it comes to the concentration of pollutants in the air. On a hot day, the air currents disperse the pollutants high up into the atmosphere, while on a day after the showers, because of the increase in humidity levels the fumes from vehicle exhaust pipes remain closer to ground level. In Bangalore, several environmental issues have attained the status of omnipresent and instead of figuring out a solution to mitigate…

Bengaluru has trees that flower through the year. Many a time one wonders how they can be a part of that whole system. How easy is it to plant trees and watch it grow? What are the requirements from departments involved? How are plant species selected? How did other citizens and groups go about tree planting? Tree planting is a big step that needs planning and dedication, the Tree Planting Guide simplifies the process and you could add to one of the city’s trees. How do we begin tree planting? Planning is an integral part of tree planting, though the…

Today at 6.30pm Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will interact with Spain on best practices for managing waste. I am not sure which adage passed my mind when I read the latest news report on BBMP and our garbage mess. “Grasping at straws” for seeking help from sister city San Francisco or “Making hay when sun shines” for possibly sending officials to Dubai to study waste management. Wasted BBMP trips on managing waste When Sharadamma was the mayor, a BBMP team led by her had visited Pune. In 2012, a team led by then-deputy S Harish went to Israel to study…

Bangalore Rural - Candidates D K Suresh - INC (incumbent MP) Age – 47 Education – PUC Businessman, brother of state minister D K Shivakumar Has 7 Cases including encroachment of forest land Assets – Rs 85.73 Crores. Click for ADR data. 9845029142 / dksuresh18@gmail.com Has set 100 RO water plants in the constituency. Won in bypolls held in Bangalore Rural last year Short profile: Click here Scams: Granite scam, illegal site,Complaint by a citizen: Click here R Prabhakar Reddy - JD(S) Age – 43 Education - BSc Realtor. Assets – 224 Crores, making him the second richest candidate in…