Less green makes PCB see red

Less green makes PCB see red
The Times of India

Bangalore: As the greenbelt area of the city is set to shrink from the existing 742 sq km to 474 sq km, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has expressed its environmental concerns to the implementing bodies — the BDA and the BMRDA.
In an eight-point recommendation letter, the board has blamed improper zoning and land use as the prime reason for crumbling infrastructure and ill-managed environmental issues and suggested the incorporation of environmental concerns.
The main suggestion is a 30-50 metre wide buffer zone or the non-development area to be maintained between industrial, residential and commercial zones.
“When 42 sq km of industrial area already exists in the city and an additional 54 sq km is added to it under the latest master plan, the emphasis should be on preserving whatever green belt we can,’’ said KSPCB chairman H C Sharatchandra.
To protect the 11.5 sq km of natural valleys, along with tank beds and existing water bodies, the KSPCB also recommends a buffer zone of 50-metre width as green belt around existing water bodies. “This is to protect flooding in low-lying areas as well as recharge the ground water,’’ he said.
Earmarking large lung spaces like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park is yet another recommendation during the development of Greater Bangalore. Taking lessons from the inefficiency of smaller layouts to sustain environmental infrastructures like sewage treatment plants and landfill facilities, the KSPCB recommends that no layout of area less than 10 hectares should be approved by development authorities.
With the core, outer and the peripheral ring road, which are proposed expressways to decongest the city, to demarcate a 10-metre wide corridor on either sides for planting trees, the board wants to ensure these will act as noise and dust barriers.
Changing land use from residential to nonresidential, especially in areas set aside for residential purposes, is also to be strictly prohibited as per the recommendations.
Masterplan
It’s the blueprint prepared under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act on the city’s infrastructure and how it should develop in the next ten years in order to accommodate a population expected to touch 88 lakhs. It covers a local planning area of 1,306 sq kms, 387 villages, seven city municipal councils (CMCs) and one town municipal council (TMC). It was passed by the BDA on December 22, 2006 and is now with the state government for approval.