The friendly scavenger

Photo was taken near Jayanagar 4th block

Crows as the scavengers is part of the eco system.  We often see the crows eating the dead rats on the road side. Have we seen enough crows inside the city? I wonder.



And then, I recall in our school Tamil classes, crows were referred to as aagaaya thotti (flying scanvers) - ஆகாய  தோட்டி.  Some how, I could not find any tamil reference of this tamil phrase on Internet.

Photo (not the rat) shot by Ganesh

Meanwhile, read this article "Keep the crows flying to save the environment".

World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day!



The world has been witnessing the erratic climatic changes periodically. We also witness different weather moods through the day. The recent Laila storm had its impact on Andhra, Tamilnadu and also partially in Karnataka too.



Dad said it was raining through out night. When we left for the railway station at 5.30 am, the entire city was "wet". The breeze was very pleasant. While returning from I decided to stop at Lalbagh. Lalbagh was green and wet where health freaks were flocking the entire landscape. But it was very scenic and have a panoramic view of Lalbagh. There is a free distribution of sapling in Lalbagh at 10.30 am. I only wish Bangalore gets more beautiful with colourful trees planted in an organized way.



Morning Times of India was a eco-friendly paper with news printed on recycled paper. The whitish paper with a green tint was a treat to read.





Few things put me off when I go around the streets:



a) The pourakiramas (garbage collectors) set off fire for dry leaves, papers etc to minimize their 'work' load

b) Garbage and debris dumped in vacant lands. The land owner should be levied penalty for spoiling the environment



c) Hanging flags, loose advertisement posters, banners



d) Construction materials dumped along the platforms for months



e) There is no implementation of the ban on plastic bags. Its only on paper. Any garbage dump you see, you would find atleast 70% of them comprise the plastic bags.



Through this blog, I recall Mr.Theerthagiri with whom some of us worked wiith 15 years back. He was a rubber stamp maker, an asthma patient, a thin framed personality. He was very good at heart, and always wanted to help less privileged. He was also part of Arivoli Iyakkam (அறிவொளி இயக்கம்), a literary movement in Tamilnadu.We were part of one of the June 5th World Environment Day celebrations.

Readers Dont Digest Always

Even in this advanced, modern, hi-fi, wi-fi technology world, traditional way of sending promotional letters through post still continue.



Every bank company stuffs some brochure full of online shopping details and offers. The letters come in glossy papers and of very high quality. Do the banks realize that trees have to be cut for those papers and those papers finally go as a garbage for no use.



I had once subscribed India Today magazine. This magazine has sold my address to Readers Digest and Time Magazine. Readers Digest, in turn keeps sending "Readers Digest SweepTakes" offer. They say every year, I am one of the 'potential winner' for the offer who can win upto Rs.26 Lakhs. The faulty computer software always picks my name even if I am not the subscriber.



Like a seasoned effort, every year I get a bunch of promotional letters from Readers Digest.  2 days back I got one. I did not take any action. Today I got another bunch with so many details, certificate formats, flyers, envelopes.  Man, you are killing trees.



Is this reliable? Check for yourself. Readers Digest Website Winners Page





Is this reliable? I checked online, if I am the lonely soul.  I checked again. Visit Consumer Complaints website

Dark side of Earth Hour

I very well agree that concepts like Earth Hour make sense; but that does not really help. People rather wait for that one hour to get over and do not really think what to do constructively without light.  Anyway, in Bangalore, we had enough Earth Hours thanks to poor planning of the Karnataka Power Ministry.

But on the other side, I also wanted to always ask. Why does Vidhana Soudha shine? Is it solar equipped?  Why dont IPL matches play in day light?  See the stadium lights. There is nothing green about IPL (except for the grass and some team's uniform)

Visit Earth Hour website for its initiatives in India

Safer Neighborhood

Its everybody's responsibility to make our neighbourhood a safer one.



Opposite to my apartment, on a street corner, borewell has been dug but not covered.  This was dug almost 4 months back with the dust and smoke spreading all over. Even after so many days of digging, the borewell remained at the road surface level. Our road is slopy, and whoever walks on this flooding road will fall into this pit. I gave the Asst Engg Mr.Krishnakumar yesterday as a deadline. As it was not completed,

today I left him a reminder message. My family updated me in the late evening, they saw someone working to cover it.



Second instance was when I saw a lorry carrying two huge rocky stones on the Bannerghatta Road. The stones were not flat, not supported and were slightly moving on either side to the lorry's movement. My car and another colleague's car were close to it. It was scary to follow. After reaching office, the first thing I did was to call up 100 from my mobile (I just learnt today that I can call 3 digit emergency numbers from mobile) and the police attended to my call. I gave all the details except the registration number as the number plate was covered with mud and dust.



We see 2 wheelers carrying rods in a unsafe manner, lorries carrying long iron rods, open lorries carrying debris, garbage collection vans spreading the dumps (and disease) all over.



This blog entry is ready to create an awareness that its everybody's responsibility to bring every such issues to the authorities notice.

Slum Free Bangalore

Our area - JP Nagar 2nd Phase - woke up to witness some action in the vacant land opposite to slum area.

BDA started demolishment of illegal constructions among the weeds. Bull dozers along with police protection were seen in action. I thought even the Swacha Bangalore also was demolished. But not!  A young policeman confirmed its demolishment of illegal constructions. I am reminded of the 2005 action when police and BDA came to demolish the slum area.



Today's demolishment and clearing the vacant land could be a lead for new establishments. This land was also used for Diwali cracker sales apart from being a open toilet and ground for burning waste. Sometime back, some officials said a library and a park was planned for this area. I wish an artificial lake comes here.



My friend says the slum people have won the case in Supreme Court having lived for 30 years. Along with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's organization, the government is planning to construct apartment, a school and multi storey complex for the benefit of slum people. More updates on this sooner.



A couple of days back newspapers also carried the news that by 2013 Bangalore will be slum free. Will the present Govt be there that time to complete it? What was initiated in 2005 (apartments for 2005) is still not executed.

Worst Floods

The Karnataka floods that claim to kill 139 and cause 10K crore damage has disrupted North Karnataka. Several trains also have been redirected or cancelled. Some of my colleagues who are returning from dusserha vacations have their trains delayed. Another friend said that his colleague cannot return to Bangalore from North India unless he gets train tickets.



The government recently declared drought in several places. Due to 'less rains', the government did not have enough food, electricity and everything was dependent on rains. When it poured, they are totally unprepared. The floods are regarded worst in 100 yrs.



Was chatting my friends on these lines: If only India employs the best brains and those from IIT's, cannot we reform our country in five years? Looks like Chandigarh is a well planned city and they never have such issues. I checked Wikipedia to learn that its India's first planned city.



Looks like linking rivers is also not a good option as a toxic river could pollute the non-toxic river.First of all, why do we have toxic rivers? If Gujarat's par river contaminated with Mercury and Yamuna is a dirty and poisonous river, are we not supposed to do something about it, first? Why do we need to link all the rivers?



There is more of political context to not linking the rivers. The states are pointing at each other when there is no water.  Now, they do the same when the floods kill each other!

Meeting with JP Nagar corporators

Today I and Leela maami got an appointment to meet Jayanagar MLA Mr.BN Vijayakumar to escalate various civic issues that are being attended to only on repeated followups and in several cases there are no actions.

I guess the problem is empowerment or lack of it.  MLA did not turn up but we managed to meet his subordinates. One of them is Mr.GV Chinnagiriyappa ( BJP General Secretary, Jayanagar Assembly Constituency). His responses were typically political: (i) "What can we do if public litter the places" (ii) "Only corporation commissioner is all powerful, talk to him" (iii) "We cannot be too strict with our corporation engineers. Already 3 engineers have quit". (iv) For encroachment related issues, go to police

I am stunned. Is it MLA reporting to corporation commissioner or the Chief Minister?

We carried all the photo evidences with us and talked about all the problems. Mr. GV Chinnagiriyappa called in sequence all the responsible corporators of our area and asked them to immediately take action.

Further Mr.Krishnakumar, the JP Nagar corporation authority was waiting near Diwakars Hospital. We took him and his colleagues in our car and took a tour of JP Nagar and showed all the places where corporation's attention is needed. Like his bosses, he also carried some excuses. At the end of the trip, he promised action before Monday.

Walking in Bangalore

Walking in Bangalore is not easier. Even the responsible establishments do not care for the pedestrians. Diwakars Global Hospital in JP Nagar 2nd Phase parks their vehicles on the pavement. The administration and the doctors do not heed to the complaint. Lack of Civic Sense!

Heading for Green Diwali

Green Diwali will not be a distant dream. In a year or two, the entire country will celebrate Green Diwali - a Diwali that is eco friendly, pollution free, noise less, less budgeted one. There are good news from various parts of country that school children taking oath to avoid crackers. In Lucknow, eco friendly crackers were on sale. In the capital city Delhi too, the government has appealed for a green Diwali which did have good response.

Bangalore had its 'high' on Tuesday. Here is a report on the pollution levels that Bangalore witnessed.

The three-day (October 26-29) air and noise quality tests conducted by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) reveals that RSPM in air has increased from 71-73 micrograms per cubic metre to 130-138 micro grams per cubic metre at City centre-City Railway Station (a commercial area) and S G Halli (a residential area).

According to the report state, both are higher than the national ambient air quality standards (of 100 micrograms per cubic metre).

Oxides of nitrogen in air have also increased when compared to normal days. The continuous ambient air quality system recorded 125 micrograms per cubic metre during festive days when compared to 93.5. An increase in sulphor dioxide and carbon monoxide values was also reported at both the locations.

The study was conducted at Jayanagar, AECS Layout, Vijayanagar Club, Indiranagar ESI Hospital and Cubbon Pet. The noise levels were calculated between 5- 11 pm.

Out of four locations where ambient noise level was monitored, noise level has increased at only one location and decreased at 2 locations and was unchanged at one location as compared to the Deepawali day, 2007. The average ambient noise levels on normal day were ranging from 60-70 decibles and on Diwali day 63-87 decibels.