The Earth Protests, we ignore

Fierce man-animal conlict, questionable certiicate for lake waters, and poor air quality mark 2021.

Deterioration of air quality, felling of trees for development projects, man-animal conflict and degradation of quality of water and encroachment of lakes in Bangalore were the dominant features of news on the environment front in Karnataka during 2021. Bengaluru was frequently in news for felling of trees, chiefly for expanding the metro network and widening of roads. In several cases the authorities failed to notify about the trees to be felled despite the order from courts to this effect.

Most livable city

But first the good news: Bengaluru was adjudged the most livable large city in the country on the Ease of Living Index (EoLI)-2020. The EoLI-2020 was released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on March 3. Bengaluru bagged the number one rank in the Million+category cities. Delhi ranked 13th, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai were ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th.

Hubballi-Dharwad was ranked 37th among 49 cities with over one million population in the Municipal Performance Index (MPI), while Davangere was ranked 9th, Mangaluru 20th, Tumakuru 23rd, Sagar 25th, Shivamogga 26th and Belagavi 47th among 62 cities with less than one million population. Curiously, Mysuru, which is conventionally known to have high quality of life, was not part of the 111 cities reviewed and ranked for the index. It was not in the list as it was not selected as a Smart City, the Ministry sources said.

Even the ‘State of India’s Environment-2021’ Report released by Centre for Science and Environment on June 16, ranked Bengaluru as the most livable city. Chennai, Shimla and Bhubaneshwar were placed on 2nd, 3rd and 4th position. Out of 100, Bengaluru’s overall score was 66.7.

Questions over lake water

Yet another report of similar genre declaring the water in 21 of Bengaluru lakes ‘fit for drinking’ raised objections. The report prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) released on February 26 said “We studied the water, the pond sediment quality and other factors to rank it on a scale of 0-100 based on the water quality index. A score between 0-25 suggests that the water can be used for irrigation, and for drinking after treatment.” But Mr. Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group (ESG) who contested the report said: NEERI’s approach is guided by environmental engineering, as opposed to a socioecological understanding”.

Forest land encroachment

Karnataka earned the dubious distinction of having the third largest chunk of forests under illegal occupancy among the states in India. It ranked behind Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Figures released
by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change in August showed 83,000 hectares of forested land being under encroachment in the State. Curiously, the encroached forests accounted for more land than the City of Bangalore has i.e.,74,000 acres.

Forest officials say families occupying forest land less than three acres, cannot be evicted until alternative arrangements are made to rehabilitate them.

The State accounted for 6% of encroached lands across the country which, report said, amounted to 13.3 lakh hectares of forests.

Tree-felling

BBMP issued notices for axing 3,366 trees for Namma Metro-II-A and Phase II-B projects in June which were opposed by several green activists. The notices were issued from April, one of them in the middle of the lockdown, stating that 3,366 trees were coming in the way of the Metro projects. A total of 1,859 trees were identified for felling on the10-km stretch (Phase-II) between Central Silk Board and KR Puram. Another 1,507 trees were marked for felling on a 10-km stretch between Kasturinanar and Kempapura.

Poor air quality

That Bengaluru is no longer a ‘Garden City’ is an old story. A Greenpeace report shocked the denizens of the cit. The report released on February 19 said at least 12,000 of the city’s deaths in 2020 could be attributed to air pollution. They were part of 1.2 lakh deaths due to air pollution countrywide. The economic damages due to pollution amounted to Rs. 12,365 crore. The information was revealed in the Greenpeace Southeast Asia analysis of IQAir data.

But how would one quantify the cost of the economic damage. The Greenpeace said: the approach is called “willingness to pay”, a lost life year or a year lived with a disability is converted to money by the amount that people are willing to pay in order to avoid this negative outcome,” according to the report.

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