‘NEERUNDU NILAMUNDU’, a film by Bala Kailasam, is being screened:

Day: Saturday

Date: 10th October 2009,

Time: 6:00pm

Venue: ASHIRWAD, OPP. STATE BANK OF MYSORE, ST. MARK’S ROAD,

BANGALORE -560001; Phone: 080-22210154

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‘Save GKVK’ Campaign – Community Protest

Date: 10:00 am – 11:00 am, Sunday, October 11, 2009

Venue: GKVK Main Gate on Bellary Road

Program: Protest against proposed 80 feet link road through GKVK campus

Issue
Proposed construction of a major 80 feet link road through GKVK campus entailing cutting of 3000 trees and destruction of several research plots

Current Status

GKVK has transferred the land to BBMP. BBMP has felled hundreds of trees and has initiated civil works. Court has issued stay order on further felling of trees. Forest department has filed a FIR and is investigating the issue. However, BBMP is still planning to carry on with road work. We have now lost hundreds of trees, but the land still remains. We can atleast regrow the trees and we can prevent a road from running through a green patch and destroying it. If we lose the land, we lose the battle fully and we’ll have a road running through an urban green patch, impacting the rest of the green patch negatively!

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Around the world, every day, millions of people take actions – big and small – that contribute to making their community and their world a more sustainable place to live.

But what difference do those those 24 little hours actually make?

In fact, what difference can we all make if we sum up the 24 hours of everyone around the globe who is out there doing something positive for the planet?

On September 23rd WWF invites YOU to help answer these questions. We will share these ideas in a global discussion using the free micro-blogging service Twitter.

We want to know about the environmental issues that you care about and the action that you are taking to address them.

Do you take shorter showers? Recycle? Bike to work? Volunteer for a local environmental group? Tell us about it!

For 24 hours, starting at 9am in Auckland, New Zealand, WWF staff will join the discussion and share their stories about what a difference their day makes. More then 60 individual WWF staff members representing over 35 countries will be participating in the event.

This is your opportunity to be in touch with the people working on the ground; our specialists working with species, climate change, public policy and much more.

People like Kimunya Mugo, from Kenya, tweeting on his work in Eastern Africa. Or polar bear expert, Geoff York, talking about his expeditions to the Arctic. All the way to New York, where Jim Leape, CEO of WWF International, will be unveiling the latest about climate change negotiations at the United Nations.
Join the conversation on Sept. 23rd: post an update on Twitter with #wwf24!

Environment Support Group ®

in collaboration with

Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology

invites you to a workshop on

Urban Lakes as Ecological, Cultural and Public Spaces

A Workshop for Decision makers, Media, NGOs, Teachers, Students and the Public

Date: Saturday 26th September 2009

Time: 9.30 am – 4.00 pm

Venue: Marigowda Hall, Lalbagh, Near Double Road Entrance, Bangalore

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Simple steps to do if you see a tree being cut -
(Pls also read the full preservation of trees act for complete details , I’ve attached it with this email and am also pasting the link below -
http://hasiruusiru.org/joomla/images/stories/pdf/LawsAndPolicies/karnatakapreservationoftreesact.pdf)

Steps
Approach the contractor/workers cutting the tree. Ask them if they have the approval of tree officer, BBMP for cutting the tree.

If they dont have the order
Ask them to stop. Tell the that they are not authorised to cut trees and that they can be arrested for cutting trees without required permission. Please call the relevant tree officer.( Details in latter half of mail.)
Tell them the details – what’s happening and where. Ask her/him to come immediately and get the work stopped. If tree officer does not answer her/his phone, call their office number. If you dont get through to that, call the cops from the police station under whose jurisdiction the said road is located. Alert local residents and try and gather support (this could be counter-productive sometimes, they may want the tree to be cut) . And yes, pls take pics of the trees being cut.

If they have the order
Please have a look at the order and see what it says.
Does it have a BBMP seal? Does the order explicitly state that the full tree needs to be cut? Is it signed by the tree officer? Note – some times the tree officers permit the branches to be cut, but people use that to cut the whole tree. If permission is granted only for cutting branches, only branches can be cut, not the trunk. In case they have what appears to be a order, but the order looks fishy/incomplete, call the tree officer on cellphone/landline and inquire if permission has been granted.

In case they do have the order to cut trees and it looks like they have been granted permission, just double-check with the tree officer anyway. Call the tree officer on cell-phone/landline and speak to her/him confirming if an order has been passed to cut the trees in that location.

If they have the order and it looks like its genuine and the order allows felling of trees
If at the end you realise that the tree officer has granted permission to cut the trees, there is not much you can do at that moment to stop it. Ask the tree officer if trees are being replanted in the same area, to compensate for the trees being cut. If trees are not being replanted in the same area, thats a violation of the act.

Later, you can also file an appeal with the tree authority, BBMP against the
tree officer’s order.

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Received this mail about a great initiative – do pitch in for your areas!

The Government Civil Defense department (the dept. which runs the area Surakasha Mita scheme) has requested our support for a tree-planting drive set-to kick off this month.

The group Hasiru Usiru is set to help them in their ambitious plan to plant 50,000 saplings. The planting will happen in the next couple of weeks since the roots of tree saplings register MAXIMUM growth during end June to mid September.

We need volunteers to help in this drive. If you are interested, please contact Sheshadri – 98455 68182, prepress555@rediffmail.com or Santosh Min – 99860 37010 , santhosh_b_min@yahoo.com

The area wise planting has been planned as follows –

1. Bangalore University. 20,000 saplings
Each and every one of them are endemic like terminalia arjuna, mitragyna parviflora, Hebbiduru ,thespesia populnea etc for lakesides. albizzia procera , Gmelina arborea, putranjeeva for plains.Ficus racemosa (atti mara) and pride of india for valleys, also fancy species like saraca ashoka and of course honge jackfruit nerle etc…

2.Arekere. 10,000 saplings including bamboos and pride of india for lakeside for below areas we had to include exotics like tabebuia,mahogany, jacaranda coz no choice.

3. Rajarajeshwarinagar . 10,000 saplings

4. Jayanagar 2000 saplings.

5. KPTCL Layout, Sarjapur road , 2000 saplings

6. D J Halli 6000 and Ulsoor lake and the homeguards campus.
approx figures.

If you live around or close by, do contact the numbers mentioned!

Karnataka Wine Board had a concerted effort to promote wine tourism, a very first a three day wine festival which was organized in Lalbagh this weekend, people took this opportunity to test and buy different types of wines from leading wine manufacturers like Grover, Kinvah and Naka… (more…)

For all you Bangloreans who always wanted to have a say in shaping the city, heres your chance to be a part of it.

ABIDe, which stands for Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force is an initiative of Chief Minister, Karnataka, Mr B.S Yeddyurappa and comprises of several noted citizens and leaders who have come forward to build a better Bengaluru. Member of Parliament Mr Ananth Kumar is the Vice Chairman of ABIDe, Member of Parliament,Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar is the Convenor.
Since its inception, ABIDe members have put together a series of recommendations before the Government on specific issues
Ø  Regional Governance
Ø  Traffic and Transport
Ø  Heritage
These recommendations are contained in the reports published by ABIDe, and available online at www.abidebengaluru.in.  The recommendations also contain a blueprint for action by the government, to create rapid changes in the areas of focus.
At this juncture, the government is considering the Task Force’s recommendations to strengthen regional governance, and will very likely introduce legislation based on the recommendations in the coming months. At this time, we are keen to therefore seek the citizen’s inputs to refining the recommendations further, and to have your voice heard by the lawmakers as well. A series of public consultations is being scheduled in the city. The first such consultation will be held at the following venue:
National Games Village, Builder’s Club-Koramangala.
Date & Time: Sunday 12th July 2009 at 11 am
We hope you will attend this upcoming event, and help members of the ABIDe Task Force in gathering citizen inputs for subsequent action to build a better Bengaluru.
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday at the venue of the first public consultation.

Citizen Matters, Bangalore’s own community news magazine, is planning a local
panel discussion & interaction on “Know more about water: water harvesting, water
quality testing, water diseases and more” at JP Nagar on 11 July, Saturday morning.
The panel will have both experienced citizens and experts demonstrating simple
techniques and ideas, and taking questions from the participants. The interaction
will run for around 1.5 hours.
at JP Nagar on 11 July, Saturday at 12.00pm to 1.30pm.

The panel
Mr Nagaraj (rainwater harvesting user at Jayanagar)
Mr Navneeth (Project Engineer, Indian Institute of Science)
Mr Sharada Prasad (Argyam, water NGO)
Dr Balagangadhar (Scientist, KSPCB)
Dr Robert Joseph (St Johns Hospital)

This will be an interactive session and will run for around
90 minutes.
Venue for this event is
Magnus School of Business
13th Cross, 6th main road
J.P.Nagar 3rd Phase
Thanka & Regards
Raghavendra,
9611106477
Ops & Mktg Lead, Oorvani Media
Publisher: Citizen Matters, Bangalore’s own newsmagazine

Citizen Matters online
http://www.citizenmatters.in

Citizen Matters print
http://www.citizenmatters.in/print
15,000 copies, available in JP Nagar+BTM only

In the true spirit of creating the community of practitioners sharing their perspectives on the subject of Innovation and Creativity, every month Wipro hosts WiCamps at various cities in India. After very successfully hosting the Delhi edition of WiCamp at IIT Delhi, the camp now moves to Bangalore. These un-conference styled meeting grounds are essentially discussion forums where startups, researchers, professionals, freelancers, faculty members, students, and investors, among others, gather and further their understanding on a subject.

The current edition of WiCamp is hosted at the esteemed Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The details of the event follow:

Theme: Green Innovations

Day and Date: Saturday, 9th May, 2009

Venue: Seminar Hall, Dept. of Management Studies, IISc Bangalore

Duration: 10:00 AM till 5:00 PM (Lunch and High Tea Included)

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