TOI: Greener pastures for Garden City

Greener pastures for Garden City
The Greener Bangalore project of BCC and BDA will restore the city’s green spaces
The Times of India


Living up to its sobriquet 'Garden City' will be that much easier for the city with the greening initiative of Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) taking root. The Greener Bangalore joint venture encompasses the development of tree parks, mini forest areas, theme parks, avenues and boulevards, traffic islands and medians, the employment of rain water harvesting techniques towards greening of urban spaces, imparting of training in kitchen and terrace garden installation methods, and the participation of residential neighbourhoods and private enterprises in the maintenance of the greenery around.

According to Gaurav Gupta, Additional Commissioner, BCC, the project has received the green signal from the State Government which included it in the budget plan. "We have drawn up a road map for two years on a budget of Rs 46 crores and will execute the plans in stages. The project will synthesise new practices in horticulture, urban forestry and engineering aesthetics to improve the green spaces all over the city," says Gupta. Objectives
The Greener Bangalore project envisages to:

Develop existing open areas into parks and green lung spaces for the public Create tree parks, traffic islands, medians, mini forests and theme parks with exclusive horticulture themes such as a rose garden, a cacti garden, a crouton park, and so on

Demonstrate and encourage the integration of rainwater harvesting techniques to develop sustainable models of urban greenery

Encourage participation of citizens and Resident Welfare Associations in the development and maintenance of neighbourhood parks

Promote public-private partnership through corporate and institutional participation

"Over 80,000 saplings are being planted all over the city in a phased manner and 100 parks, one in each ward, have been identified for development and restoration along the lines of the bio-diversity J P Park that BCC had developed a few years ago," says Krishna Udupudi, Deputy Conservator of Forests, BCC. "Apart from developing parks, boulevards along major roads and tree-lined avenues, we will also be initiating citizens into growing terrace and kitchen gardens," he adds. "We will impart training for the right methods of growing vegetables and herbs, and plans are afoot to also distribute the right kind of saplings according to the climatic conditions".

This year, BCC’s plans will include:

Development of parks: In each of the 100 wards, under the Janodyanavana and other schemes, parks will be developed. Local residents will be encouraged to use these parks for recreation. These parks will essentially integrate garden elements such as walkways, soft landscaping, rainwater harvesting structure, and planting of
trees such as Bahuhinia, Champaka, Pongamia, Sisso, Mahogany, Neem, Ashoka, Cherry, Jacaranda etc, in clusters.

Mini forests and theme parks: To increase the green cover and to reduce the maintenance cost, mini forest
areas have been planned in various city zones. Theme parks will blend aesthetics with development of open spaces around certain plant species. These parks will be spread across 22 locations within the city.

Traffic islands, circles, boulevards: Boulevards like the one on M G Road will be developed along Airport Service Road, Lakshman Rao Road and West of Chord Road. Side walks will be improved and roots of old trees which damage sidewalks will be cut. Trees will also be planted along sidewalks.

Public participation initiative: As part of the Udyana Mithra scheme, neighbourhood parks will be maintained through the joint participation of Resident Welfare Associations and BCC.

Rainwater harvesting techniques: To collect rainwater for better use, rainwater harvesting devices will be installed in parks. This will include recharging ofborewells, surface pond water and contour bonding.

DH: Bannerghatta Park all aflutter about facelift

Bannerghatta Park all aflutter about facelift
Deccan Herald

IT city Bangalore’s prime weekend outing - Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) - is all set to open a Butterfly Park.

Sources said Chief Minister H D Kumaaraswamy has invited Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal to open the park, set up spending Rs 3.81 crore. It has a butterfly conservatory, audio visual facility and an exhibition hall. Rare varieties of butterflies can be seen at the park.

The park will serve as a central hub for coordinating research, training, education and rural livelihood using the resources (butterflies) of peninsular India.

Bigger zoo

Meanwhile, Bannerghatta park as a whole is getting a facelift under a Rs 10 crore project. Visiting the park, set up in 1971, will soon be a different experience. Anticipating heavy surge of visitors in the years ahead, in the wake of the city’s meteoric rise in population, the park is all set to be upgraded with many more ‘visitor-friendly’ facilities.

Animal safaris (lion and tiger), butterfly park, zoological garden, and animal rescue centre are part of the biological park. BBP park covers 355.85 hectares of reserve forest, 62.48 hectares of acquired private land and 118.17 hectares of government waste land handed over to the forest department. The total area is 545.50 hectares.

In phases

Though BBP is well-known in the international wildlife circuit, its infrastructure falls short of being anywhere close to global standards. When compared to Mysore Zoo which is much smaller in area, the visitors to the park are lesser in number as the zoo at Mysore attracts over 14 lakh visitors a year.

Heavy footfall

Over six to seven lakh people visit BBP on an annual basis.

“The park could attract many more visitors if suitable infrastructure is provided in accordance with modern concepts of zoo management. Therefore, a Rs 10 crore project is being taken up in three phases to upgrade the park to international standards,” said Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) Member Secretary and Conservator of Forests Suresh. Disclosing this to Deccan Herald, Mr Suresh said the first phase of the project (Rs 3 crore to be spent) will begin shortly as the PWD is reviewing the estimates prepared for the works.

A high-level committee comprising ZAK, BBP and forest officials has been constituted at Bangalore to finalise the facilities to make it “more educating and rewarding” for visitors to the park.

Upgradation

ZAK, whose headquarters is at Mysore, will co-ordinate with Central Zoo Authority of India (CZA) in executing the project. The park upgradation plan will be based on CZA guidelines. Despite having a collection of 1,100 animals, the zoo at BBP is located in a small area.

“The zoo will be expanded in another 25 acres of land, building state-of-the-art animal enclosures,” he said, adding that outdated animal houses will be razed. CZA and Karnataka Infrastructure Development Corporation (KUIDFC) are jointly funding the project.

The Ministry of Tourism has also supported the project.

DH: Mobile vans to sell saplings

Mobile vans to sell saplings
Deccan Herald

Starting Sunday, six mobile vans will criss-cross the City carrying saplings and plants to promote the concept of green Bangalore among people. Called ‘Parisara Maithri’, the mobile vans introduced by the Karnataka Thigalara Nurserymen Association will literally have plants for sale on wheels.

The vans will have fruit, flower and ornamental plants, along with seeds and bulbs and will be stationed at all Bangalore Mahanagara Palike parks unless otherwise informed. For a start, the vans will cover areas where the demand for nursery plants has been high.

Making it easy

According to Association President Mr Seetharam, the idea behind introducing these mobile vans is to make things easy for people.

“For instance, our nursery is located in Siddapura. People living in Rajajinagar may find it difficult to come all the way to Siddapura tolerating the heavy traffic. So we decided to go to their areas instead,” Mr Seetharam said and added that many nurseries have shifted to the outskirts of the City today. “This facility is also to make people buy more plants and make Bangalore green again,” he added.

The association plans to introduce more vehicles as days progress.

“We will also try to publicise the date, time and location of the vans soon,” he said.

Shivagange Mahalakshmi Peetha Mahasamthana pontiff Gnananandapuri Swamiji flagged off the vehicles.

Former minister R Ramalinga Reddy, N L Narendra Babu, MLA, Horticulture department Director Dr Vasanth Kumar were present.

TOI: Putting green into Garden City

Putting green into Garden City
Scheme Includes Theme Parks, Cool Groves, Mini Forests
The Times of India

Bangalore: There’s an eco-utopia creating a storm, gently, in your friendly neighbourhood. And the storm reads something like — 80,974 trees, 11 mini forests and 22 floral theme parks.

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) in tandem with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has unveiled an ambitious scheme called Greener Bangalore to develop open areas as green lungs. The slew of measures are apparently driven by one agenda — putting the ‘garden’ back in the sobriquet Garden City.

To start with, citizens have been roped in to understand that parks that are being developed are meant to be preserved for posterity. Accordingly the BMP has given out neighbourhood parks for adoption. A month ago, three parks were handed out to three different resident welfare associations under the ‘adopt a park’ scheme, and the initiative was lauded even by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy as a telling example of public-private partnership. This, even when the BMP and private players in the corporate and builders sector were ruing the lack of co-ordination and drive amongst themselves.

Explains Krishna Udupudi, chief forest officer, BMP, “Residents have to look after the piece of land allocated to them and keep it in a healthy condition. We have identified 75 such parks which can be adopted by citizen groups. The incentive for them is that a placard with their names and logo will be put up announcing that the park is being maintained by them.’’

After parks, it is groves. Fancy stepping into an icy cool grove on a hot summer afternoon? The 11,281 pongamia saplings compartmentalised into pongamia groves should do it. Botanists who helped with the recently inaugurated bio-diversity J P Park explain that pongamia is a plant with coolant properties, creating a naturally air-conditioned atmosphere. Why on a humid summer night, stepping into a pongamia grove apparently entails woollens!

When horticulture department officials talk of increasing the green coverage, they are referring to mini forests being developed across east, south and west zones. Mini forests or a conglomeration of tree parks, lawns and boulevards are under way at RMV II and III stage, BTM I stage, Kalyananagar, Chikkabanaswadi main road, J P Nagar Ring Road, Jayanagar 7th block.

There’s more — rose gardens anybody, lotus parks maybe, how about hibiscus theme parks, to say nothing of succulents and cacti, crotons and bougainvillea. Twenty-two theme parks across different locations, are slated to take over by early 2007. Udupudi explains that thousands of varieties of plant species have been brought in, even soil suitable for a particular species has been imported to Bangalore.

TAKE YOUR PICK
Theme Park and Location
Rose Garden: Pipeline Park, M C Layout, Kempegowda Tower Park Lotus Park: Tavarekere Udyanavana, J P Park Hibiscus Park — J P Nagar (south), Jeevan Bimanagar LIC park Crotons: Bashyam Park nursery, South end circle, Jayanagar Succulents and Cacti: National College nursery, Jayanagar, K G Tower Park Herbal Garden: Near Ayurvedic Hospital, N Ramu Triangular Park, Eco Park Koramangala Bougainvillea: Geleyara Balaga Pipe line Park, Coles Park, Vidyagiri layout