Parks, green spaces and lakes in the Garden City are battered in a battle with the amoeba-like growth of the ‘IT capital of the country’. Using satellite imagery and geo-spatial analysis, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have found that while the city has nearly doubled its urban sprawl, — roads, buildings and anything man-made — vegetation in the form of trees in parks or along lakes and ponds have been reduced to a meagre minority.
Shockingly, while Greater Bengaluru once boasted of nearly half its area covered in trees at the turn of the millennium, by 2014, vegetation had reduced to just 8.4 per cent of the 741-sq-km city. The disappearance of lakes becomes stark in the report: once, the lakes cumulatively spanned more than 19 sq.km, but now these water bodies sprawl a meagre 7 sq.km. The worst affected areas in the city are north-east (areas spurred by the Airport Road, including Jakkur, Banaswadi, Hennur) and south-east (areas around the Hosur Road and Electronic City).“There has been an extreme growth in the industrial sector (IT sector) in last couple of years and migration of people to these places for housing and work has brought severe pressure on the environment. Further, we lack efficient transportation and thus we see people craving to stay close to their workplace adding to dependency on private vehicles,” says Bharath Aithal and others from the Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) at IISc.
The study will be taken up with policy makers to enable a better understanding of the out-of-control city, while also aiding them plan future growth better. “The study clearly indicates that this rate of unprecedented urbanisation would create more troubles for citizens of the city,” says Mr. Aithal.
