Kiss goodbye to water resources

Kiss goodbye to water resources

Swathi Shivanand

Opening up of the green belt area for construction is a recipe for disaster

Green belt area has been reduced to 419.5 sq. km

It will affect the micro climate of the city

BANGALORE: So you thought one of the good old city’s charms was its wonderful, breezy weather and its even temperatures? Well, it’s time to give those long-held perceptions a rethink. The salubrious climate of the city will take a major battering when the implications of reducing green cover to less than half begin to show the consequences.

The Master Plan 2015 has allowed for green belt area to be reduced to 419.50 sq. km. This means you can build on 800 sq. km., which translates to a whopping 65 per cent of the 1219.50 sq. km. of the Bangalore Metropolitan Area. The latter is incidentally the planning area of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which has prepared the Master Plan.
Micro climate

What does it mean to reduce green belt area? H.S. Sudhira, a researcher with the Indian Institute of Science who has been studying the land use patterns in the city, simplifies it all: “It means that built-up area increases. Man-made structures will absorb heat in the mornings and since it cannot be used, the heat is let out at night. This will affect the micro climate of the city.”

Green belt area is the space earmarked in the periphery of the city where land can only be used for promoting green cover or for agricultural purposes. It also acts as lung spaces to urban areas that it envelops and is used to contain urban sprawl.

The vision document of the Master Plan, however, states that opening up of the green belt (also called agricultural zone) “is a realistic one and is a convenient and less expensive form of urbanisation.

Under this scenario, continuous urbanisation is expected towards the North and the West, two parts of the city already experiencing urban pressure.”
Ground water

It justifies the opening up of the green belt by stating that as the best ground water resources are located precisely in the south and western parts of the city, these parts need to be protected from urbanisation, which can pollute and destroy these water sources. “It is preferable to occupy lands where there are fewer water sources and if necessary, water can be transported from these places,” the Master Plan states.

And areas with less water are the northern and the eastern parts of the city, lying between the Bellary Road and Hosur Road. “Do they actually foresee the ramifications of opening up the green belt in these areas?” questions Mr. Sudhira.

“This is the catchment area for the Koramangala, Challaghatta and the Hebbal valleys. Opening up green belt would mean that all available land would be built on, sometimes even encroached. Development will alter the natural flow of these valleys, which means water to the lakes will reduce and they will eventually dry up.”

And we all know what happens when lake beds go barren. On the bed of the erstwhile Dharmambudi tank stands a bus stand. On the Shoolay tank is a football field. On the non-existent Sampangi tank is the Kanteerava stadium. Need we say more?