Articles by Mohit M Rao

Bengaluru lakes once offered a buffet of greens and fish to those in the neighbourhood. The trees around lakes yielded fruits and seeds that could be either devoured or sold in the markets. But pollution and flawed rejuvenation projects have stopped local communities from accessing lakes.

Yeshwanthpur APMC yard caters to farmers and buyers from across the country. How has the APMC system worked here, and how successful has it been?

Farmers from as far away as Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal sell their produce at Bengaluru’s APMC yard, one of the biggest markets for onions and potatoes in the country.

Small water bodies host a variety of bird and animal species, and ensure water security. But unlike lakes, they are completely ignored. A majority of these water bodies have already been filled up.

Slender lorises were commonly spotted in Bengaluru once, but with widespread tree felling, they are now cornered into isolated patches like IISc. Further tree loss is threatening the survival of the small population that remains now.

The acts of kindness from individuals during the lockdown are innumerable and difficult to quantify. Many were no more than just donors, but their contribution saved the day for the thousands stranded far from home.

The State had no plan to combat hunger. Authorities capable of verifying voter identity cards in every slum and ghetto in the City, failed to even gauge the scale of food insecurity triggered by the lockdown. The BBMP gave out only 68,000 ration kits whereas NGOs took up a bulk of the task of feeding the hungry. Nobody knows how many went hungry.