Sometime ago, a resident of Lavelle Road got an unexpected visitor who chose to enter through the drain pipes of the bathroom. A snake had slithered in from a vacant site near Eliza Manor building. The vacant site was also home to piles of rotting garbage, rodents and mosquitoes.
Waste management is in such disarray that vacant sites often become temporary garbage landfills. This phenomenon is predominant in newer and developing parts. But readers have reported this problem in Crescent Street, some sites near the passport office in Koramangala and Kalyan Nagar too.
Another problem spot is HRBR Layout, which has about 150 empty plots, most of which are not maintained properly. This neighbourhood has reported the most snake sightings this past summer. “We have been asking the BBMP to penalise owners who do not maintain their sites, but there is no response. People do not have the culture of keeping their doors closed all the time,” says D.S. Rajashekar, President of the Citizens Action Forum, an umbrella organisation for around 110 Residents’ Welfare Associations in the city.
The civic authority has, several times, announced that a hefty penalty would be levied on owners of vacant sites where garbage is dumped. Authorities even warned that if the owners don't clean up their sites, the BBMP would and pass on the expenditure to them. However, nothing has changed.
BBMP officials claim that tracing the owners is a Herculean task. "This is because most of vacant sites are under litigation. Other times, the owner would have settled abroad and we are unable to trace them," a senior official explained.
To make matters worse, these garbage-filled vacant sites are potentially more dangerous that the black spots on street corners or the roadside. The garbage is contained in a specific area and ends up serving as a fostering ground for rodents, snakes, mosquitoes and stray dogs.
“A vacant site where uncollected garbage piles up is like showing a welcome sign to a snake,” says Mohan K., who heads the Quick Animal Rescue Team.
Possible solutions: ‘Owners can be made to act’ Waste management experts and activists say that property owners must fence their plots to prevent it from being misused or becoming garbage dumps.
The law has provisions for preventing dumping on vacant sites. The BBMP can serve a notice. If the owner fails to take action, the civic has to clean the site and send a bill to the owner amounting to thrice the cost incurred.
N.S. Ramakanth, waste management expert, says, “We have put up signs at problematic areas in the neighbourhood stating that the site is being taken over by or belongs to the BBMP. We have succeeded in getting the owners to take responsibility, erect fencing and get the site cleaned.”
People Speak “I live in Kalyan Nagar, close to the Horamavu-ORR junction. The service road on the KN side has quite a few empty plots. Some have become the de-facto dumping grounds for garbage and carcasses from meat shops. This generates a foul smell, especially after a rainfall, and attracts rodents causing health issues,” says Sundar Balasubramanian, Kalyan Nagar.
“My neighbourhood is plagued with garbage issues. In addition to open drains and black spots, garbage is dumped in two vacant sites. I request BBMP to conduct an awareness campaign on waste management,” says Meena Artwani, resident of Manjunatha Layout, Thanisandra Main Road.
Reader’s Mail We stay in Dollars Colony in J.P. Nagar. An empty site on 3rd Cross was used to dump construction debris and other waste. When construction started on the site a few months ago, the culprits adopted another empty site on 5th Cross — Jayashri Ramesh, resident, Dollars Colony.
On my daily morning walks, I often end up stopping people from dumping garbage in an empty site near Kidney Foundation — R. K. Kaustubha, Padmanabhanagar.
My apartment faces a road full of shops and eateries. They dump garbage in two empty sites in N.R. Palya till one was converted into parking space. The other one remains an eyesore — Nandhini Rao, Bannerghatta Road.
Garbage is dumped outside the Government Channasandra School on Uttarahalli-Kengeri Road — Shahanawaz Sagar.
You can see a lot of garbage dumped around Kempegowda Bus Station. The neighbourhood stinks, which reflects poorly on Bengaluru — Chandrashekar.
