Articles by Josephine Joseph

There is an element of awe when you witness the bustle at a government office, a constant murmur, people with some paper or file in their hands, some asking strangers for a pen, tiny tea cups making rounds behind desks of different sizes—never a dull moment. In a sub registrar’s office, in addition to the usual buzz, one would most likely feel the thick air of tension of the many deals waiting to be signed and sealed. Only relaxed faces there are likely to be those of couples waiting to get their marriage registered, sometimes with garlands and sweets handy.…

Talk about the Bangalore’s environment issues and most fresh on our minds are incidents involving lakes in the city, unabated and one after another. Be it the National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulling up companies for large scale construction between two lake beds, Bellandur lake on fire, foam build up on polluted Sarakki, Bellandur and Varthur lakes or actions like clearing ‘encroachments’ on lake beds; the state of the lakes and the environment makes us wonder how our city reached such new lows. Various studies have shed light on the fact that while urbanisation led to environmental degradation, the rate has…

In 2008, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) rapped the then-Bengaluru Municipal Corporation, BMP, and pointed out they had not put in efforts to ensure segregation of municipal solid wastes at source, which made processing of the waste difficult. The situation did not change even after six years—CAG repeated the observation in their 2014 report. In 2008 and again in 2014, the CAG report points out that the BBMP has no system in place for waste segregation or scientific processing at landfills, which has led to ecological and environmental burden. Biomedical waste is another area of mismanagement. The CAG points…

Over the past 15 years the population of the city has increased more than 2.5 times, from 4 million to close to 10 million, the per capita garbage generation on an average has doubled, from 0.25kg/capita to 0.50kg/capita, and the composition and fabric of garbage has drastically changed, from about 80% compostable organic waste and a great part of the 20% being recyclable, to less than 60% compostable and a great part of the 40% being rejects, that will have to be landfilled because they are mixed waste. This article has been made possible thanks to support from Aruna Green…

Pic credit: CARA - www.adoptionindia.nic.in  “We were nervous when we were to meet the judge for the first time since we weren't sure what to expect. He welcomed us into his chambers and the first thing he said was, ‘I wanted to thank you for taking the bold step of adopting a child. I am sure you will give this child a better life than he would have got otherwise.’ We always felt that we were also getting a better life and explained that to the judge and he smiled. As much as we needed him, I think the little guy…

Kundalahalli gate, Hosur Road, Old Airport Road, CBD, Old Madras Road, Koramangala Sony junction, Banashankari bus stop, Nrupathunga Road, K G Road, Mysore Road, Tumkur road are a few areas that commuters would avoid if they could. These are wide roads but the sheer volume of traffic, stretches of roads that bottleneck and constant civil works like cables or drainage pipe laying or electrical transformer repairs make these roads perfect traffic gridlock examples. Roads under Tender SURE Phase 1 Vittal Mallya Road St. Marks Road Richmond Road Residency Road Museum Road Commissariat Road Cunningham Road Roads under Tender SURE Phase…

It's been a year since we moved to this home in ISRO Layout. A terrace for the kids to play, another terrace for our Kambha / stand-in pot and yet another one for my terrace garden plot. Perfect? No. What set off the home-happiness balance was the empty plot next door. It's been a year long journey of attempts to locate the owner, getting BBMP to stop dumping in the site and stop burning garbage and dry leaves in the site. Telling the PKs, calling the BBMP control room, catching supervisors in action setting fire to garbage piled up. We…

  Pashmina Waterfront as seen on a Google map. Investing in real estate in Bangalore is a dream of any investor. However, is the growth of this sector in tune with the infrastructure that the city can handle? A close look by Citizen Matters at 26 constructions coming up in Whitefield - KR Puram area in East Bengaluru shows some alarming observations. When the 8,000 flats are fully occupied, new residents will need 10,662.87 KL of water a day (equivalent of 1780 water tankers of 6000 Litres). More than 19,697 cars will add to Whitefield traffic. Ministry of Environment and…

A water tanker collects water from a borewell next to Bellandur lake, whose water is contaminated according to tests by the Pollution Control Board. Pic: Meera K. The terms ‘water tankers’ and ‘water mafia’ are not new to an average Bangalorean. Neither is the knowledge that a vast part of the namma Bengaluru depends on the water they supply. Some of us like to believe the public authorities when they try to deny the existence of ‘mafia’ in managing water or garbage but their existence is a reality. Have you ever tried to understand how water mafias exercise a form…

Flooding that took place in PES campus recently. Pic: Sent by a reader. Bangalore, with its burgeoning population, faces the challenge of providing decent housing for all. Sensing the opportunity, many builders have forayed into the field, with various real estate projects all over the city and the outskirts. LIST OF PROJECTS OR ACTIVITIES REQUIRING PRIOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE        1     Mining, extraction of natural resources and power generation (for a specified production capacity) Mining of minerals Offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration and development and production River Valley projects Thermal Power plants Nuclear power projects and processing of…