Say no to Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act Amendment - Petitions

indian - 20-MAY-2010

Unless tree felling is restricted, our green cover may disappear through greed and ignorance. The GoK enacted the KPTA, 1976, which made permission from the Forest Dept mandatory for felling trees.

According to the Trees Act, trees may only be felled with prior permission of the Forest Dept which has the duty and liability to preserve and protect trees. Anyone (including officials of govt/civic bodies) is subject to criminal prosecution for felling a tree without the required permission.

This requirement of official permission has prevented large scale felling of trees, and has also restrained people and officials from unnecessarily felling trees owing to fear of criminal prosecution. Thus the KPTA thus put a brake on tree felling and helped protect our green cover.

Almost all the 30 species (many major fruit trees) now included for exemption in addition to the earlier 11 constitute the major tree wealth of both rural and urban Karnataka. It'll/It'd devastate bird life and spread pests.

Implement Delhi High Court directives to end stray cattle menace - Petition

indian - 15-MAY-2010

Implement Delhi High Court directives to end stray cattle menace - Petition

The presence of unauthorized / illegal / unregistered dairies / dairy colonies / cattle sheds in the urbanized areas is/was the main reason for the stray cattle menace faced by the citizens. The dairies / cattle sheds  are operating / running illegally / unauthorizedly and without any licenses.

The civic bodies ought to have felt embarrassed and apologetic for being unable to implement the policy in an honest and efficient manner.

It unfortunately seems like authorities have no will to enforce closure or relocation of such illegal / unauthorized / unregistered dairies / cattle sheds and are/were in fact interested in such dairies / cattle sheds continuing in the urban areas in total defiance of the provisions of law.

Say no to widening of trees-lined Sankey Road Petition

indian - 13-MAY-2010

The proposed six-lane corridor is expected to result in chopping of about 150 well-grown trees. The widening entails felling of about 150 trees on both sides of the stretch, besides occupying a good portion of the historic tank. It'll/It'd destroy the beauty of one of the posh localities of the City.

Public Awareness on Lead Safe Bangalore

bikram satpathi - 30-APR-2010

From:

Dear Sir,

Every 10th of the month as 'No honking day'

murali772 - 29-APR-2010

In a unique initiative to curb noise pollution in the city, Mission Peace, an NGO, has decided to observe ‘No Honking Day’ on 10th of every month. This drive against the increasing noise level has been supported by Karnataka police.

The initiative was unveiled by Justice Manjula Chellur, Justice K Sreedhar Rao, retired Justice A M Farooque and former Justice M F Saldahna along with DG & IGP Ajay Kumar Singh.

The mission of starting ‘No Honking Day’ is to create awareness about unnecessary use of horn and the ill-effects of noise caused by the autos. We will also try to convince the government to bring in laws to control noise pollution,’’ said Sunitha De Sousa, president of Mission Peace.

For the full text of the report in the TOI, click here

A most welcome initiative. I am sure it will have the fullest support of PRAJAGALU.

Muralidhar Rao
    
 

Minutes of a SCEP Meeting on “Global warming”

psaram42 - 28-APR-2010

 We have a weekly SCEP (Senior Citizen Enrichment Program) meeting on every Wednesday at 4:30 PM at Mother Tree a beautiful place provided by one of our SCEP members We were about 20 senior citizens at this meeting to day. It was a very hot evening and the welcome rain was the saving grace. 

The speaker of the day was Ms Arun Shivasaran a young and upcoming Architect of repute. 

The speaker started the talk on a poignant note of alluding to the commonly used greeting when we meet viz “how are you” meaning how is your health. Now it is high time we talk about global warming instead. For Architects it is now common to grade Silver gold and platinum standards based on Global warming compliance. 

Axe trees, says forest department

vinay_sreenivasa - 23-APR-2010

Axe trees, says forest department, by Imran Khan.

BANGALORE: In what could lead to wide-spread and indiscriminate felling of trees, the state forest department has recommended an amendment to the Karnataka Trees Preservation Act of 1976.The civic authorities in Bangalore especially have been crying hoarse for not being able to cut trees for “developmental” activities because of the Act. According to the recommended amendment, one need not seek permission from the forest department before axing trees.The Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976, mandates that no person shall fell any tree or cause any tree to be felled in any land, whether it was in his ownership or otherwise, unless a permission was granted by the tree officer.The proposed amendment, which grants permission of felling of 42 species of trees in the state, has been pending with the state government for ....

Electricity distribution and Pruning of road side trees

psaram42 - 23-APR-2010

 During rainy season the road side trees are usually in the news. The whirlwinds are the culprits in up rooting of many trees.  The pruning of the road side trees is another chore that the BBMP has to do due to the over head domestic electricity distribution system currently being followed in the city.

Karnataka State pollution control board (KSPCB) - active?

manjari - 8-APR-2010

They have 10 offices in Bangalore alone (isnt that good news ;)
They have a lot of laboratories which are set up for KSPCB for data analysis and data gathering.
  
The site says "Samples collected by the Regional Offices of the Board, Industries, Organizations and from general public are analysed."
When i read this I only get evil ideas (evil because it might not be fun for a lot of people)

They have listed a number of parameter that they analyze.
Industrial waste water has: 41 parameters
Air: 6 parameters
Water: 26 parameters.

They have things like "monthly avg result of national ambient air quality" and "classification of river water quality as per GEMS and MINARS"
The only small, tiny winy problem is they have failed to update any new reports and the last one is of 2007.

The last annual plan has been put up for year 2006-2007.

So I have a simple question, what happened to KSPCB? Does it exist? If it does then where are the reports?
If they have reports then cant we file RTI to get it?

Bangalore Patrol

manjari - 7-APR-2010

Times of India along with Janaagrah launch Bangalore Patrol (starting tomorrow) says the cover page of TOI today. I tried to look for it online but couldnt find a thing about the same. But if you have a TOI around check it out, it is impossible to miss.

According to the Advertisement "Bangalore patrol involves a stringent ward infrastructure and services assessment programme with the singular aim of demanding direct evaluating and accountability from the local administrative and governance system."

They will start with 5 essential civic rights of water supply, Mobility, Sanitation, Environment and Public amenities.

It will measure the same in 198 wards. By doing so they intend to monitor the work of our newly elected representative's in each of the wards. In my opinion the best measure of performance and also at the same time we get a good idea about our city.
According to the article "Progress report will be based on simple objective performance evaluation criteria and will be freely available to the public, empowering them to demand answers"