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

You are cordially invited to the screening of film, ‘NEERUNDU NILAMUNDU’, by Bala Kailasam. The details are as follows:

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

About the film:

The word ‘reforms’ with respect to Government functioning is almost always understood only in its economic context as disinvestment and privatization. Very rarely it is understood as the reform of the functioning of the individuals within the Government, and a change in the form and style of Governance. It is taken for granted that such a mission is impossible!

This film is about a group of engineers working in the water sector in Tamilnadu who are engaged in such a mission. The film traces their journey to 2003; how it started in the ‘The Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD)’ and showcases exemplary stories of individual transformation leading to institutional transformation. The narration is from the point of view of an engineer from the Agricultural Department (AED) undergoing training by a couple of TWAD engineers who share their experience with unbelievable passion.

This is being Co-organized by:

Bangalore Film Society contact: George Kutty @ 9448064513

Visthar contact: Shyam Khalil @ 9845442453

The Other Media contact: Santhosh Kumar @ 09446529991

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!

Why is it of concern?

q GKVK is a unique habitat with rich bio-diversity providing the much needed green space and shelter to several species of birds, insects, animals and many rare plants.

q Deforestation will potentially affect ambient temperature, rainfall, and the surrounding water table.

q Pollution resulting from the fuel emissions of subsequent traffic on the proposed link road would negatively impact the bio-diversity of the campus as also the health of the neighbourhood children and residents.

q The research character of the campus would be adversely affected with the advent the road, commuters, establishment of commercial enterprises, and generation of waste material alongside such a major link road through the campus.

Community Demand

q Environmental Impact Study (EIS) must be done in compliance of legal requirements for forest areas and a serious evaluation of alternatives must be undertaken in consultation with stakeholders and environmentalists before taking a decision.

Action taken so far

q Signature campaign for petition to Karnataka Governor

q Petition to BBMP on April 10th, 2009

q Save GKVK Candlelight Vigil on August 25, 2009

q Petition to the Karnataka Governor on August 28th, 2009

q Save GKVK March on September 5th, 2009

q Memorandum to the Karnataka Governor on September 5th, 2009

q Submission for intervention to the Director General of Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi.

q Save GKVK Candlelight Vigil on October 2, 2009

Must SAVE this lung space – the GKVK campus – one of the last remaining green cover in North Bengaluru!

Contact: 95 35 10 30 50 Email: SaveGKVKadmin@gmail.com

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!

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

The urban built area of Bangalore once had over 300 tanks (now also called as lakes). These water harvesting systems were built over hundreds of years by various generations, and formed an intricate network of water use serving agriculture and drinking water needs. In addition these water bodies have become critical sites for a variety of flora and fauna, especially local and migratory waterfowl.

Over time, these tanks have disappeared due to poor urban planning, lack of concern and reliance on drawing water from faraway rivers. The cultural underpinnings of water conservation that was so innate to life and living in these regions, slowly eroded with the disappearance of these lakes. As the city grows more dense in population and buildings, the critical importance of lakes as social, cultural and ecological spaces is being felt.

Presently less than 60 of these tanks exist in built Bangalore, and most are heavily polluted or drained. As a direct result of encroachment of lakes and its canal networks, Bangalore’s neighbourhoods get easily flooded even in a short rain frequently resulting in loss of life and property.

In this workshop we will understand the traditional methods of use and management of tanks and community relationships that kept these practices alive. We will appreciate the dynamic ecology of lakes and their role in supporting livelihoods of communities dependent on fishing, horticulture and farming. We will focus our concerns on how lakes have transitioned into cesspools of urban waste, sewage and decay. We will examine how critical lakes are to building water security for ever growing Bangalore. We will examine the role of the Rule of Law and Community Action in reviving these critical water bodies. We will also examine current policies of protecting and conserving lakes and examine their efficiency, especially ongoing efforts at privatising lakes. As an overall process we will try and evolve a series of good practices to ensure our lakes are retained for our generation and generations to come.

This workshop is for decision makers from the government and corporate sectors, academicians, media persons, legal professionals, political leaders, etc. Needless to state, anyone is welcome with prior registration.

Proceedings of this workshop will be widely circulated with the help of mass media and also electronically.

For More Details and Registrations contact:

Divya Ravindranath or Bhargavi S. Rao, Environment Support Group, 1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore 560070 Tel:91-80-26713559/60/61 Email bhargavi@esgindia.org/divyarrs@esgindia.org Website: www.esgindia.org

Lalbagh requires all Participants to pay the entrance fee of RS.10/- at the gates

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.

Tree Officer Contact Details

Tree officer North (Zones – North, East, Mahadevpura, Bytarayanapura)
Suresh – 9845174447, 22485317

His office is in the BBMP main office, hudson circle.

Tree officer South (Zones – South, West, Bomannahalli, Raja Rajeshwari Nagar)
Venkateshappa – 94806 83842, 2657 8423

Office – in the BBMP southern zone office, Jayanagar 2nd block, close to Ashoka pillar.

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…

The State wine policy allows individuals, groups, companies and to organize wine festivals. However, there’s a strict no-no to fortified wine (alcohol-added wine) during these festivals. Karnataka has 600 acres under grape cultivation, with Nandi Valley in Chikkaballapur and Krishna Valley in Bijapur with the highest cultivation.

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.

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

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)

For registration to the event, please add your name to the wiki: http://barcamp.org/WiCampBangalore

For any further query, contact Pavan Soni (pavan.soni@wipro.com; +91 98458 11683). Do share this invite with your friends and colleagues who might be interested in the subject of Green Innovations.

For highlights of the latest event at IIT Delhi, please visit: https://www.barcamp.org/WiCampDelhi