Bengaluru is a big city, home to about 10 million people; a melting pot of cultures, cuisines and lifestyles. People here retain their individual identities even as they identify themselves as a part of the bigger community. Walk down Brigade road, roam around Malleshwaram, drive on the highway or hang out at one of the innumerable shopping locales on any given day; one is bound to find oneself amazed by the variety available to them. From embroidered silks to fitted three piece suits, from spicy chats to gourmet cuisines, from handmade crafts to gold jewelry, bikes and cars, an abundance of choice.
For a countryside person, life in a metro would be a big surprise. Human beings are social animals we cannot survive without a community. But our present life is starting to oppose the prime dogma of life that is, living together. We consider this as the tragedy of the commons. The traditional aspect of every culture has been the dragoman to its citizens to think of future and save the present. Bangalore was once a beautiful city with self conscious citizens who did not take it’s natural beauty for granted. However, the dawn of the millennium saw many issues of unimaginable magnitude come to fore. Between the rising inflow of immigrants and the increasing population, the value of keeping our city beautiful was lost. One doesn’t have to look very far from home to find examples on how the environment is misapplied without the people pondering about the future. From the overview, it would seem that Bangalore faces two major problems, that of traffic and the second being the garbage problem. Although Malleshwaram, chicpet, avenue road etc are a shopper’s paradise, they are also potential minefields for disease and ill health. A trip through these places is far from pleasurable. Motorists vehemently zip through the already overflowing road, veteran pedestrians intuitively zig zag to their destination; The newbies aren’t adept or lucky enough to do the same. One sees overflowing garbage bins, open drains choked by plastic and countless potholes that double as mosquito breeding grounds. The city’s biggest choke to the neck is its traffic. The city is gifted with one of the best bus transportation services in the country. Due to the presence of high number of white collar workers who are not willing to compromise on luxuries in the transportation system, the city's natural cover is being destroyed. With increase in the population that equates the status quo with owning private vehicles, the traffic rises exponentially. “It would take me 25 minutes to travel from yelahanka to audugodi” says a resident recalling the by-gone days. Although the automotive industry is booming and it contributes to a huge portion of the country’s economy, the detrimental effects of never changeable. Due the presence of a huge number of IT companies in Bangalore, there exist a huge number of individual vehicle users. The government can turn this into a win-win situation by making it compulsory for white collared workers to use public means of transportation and providing them with a subsidy on the yearly passes for the Vajra buses in Bangalore. The companies should take up the responsibility of seeing to that their workers reach their work points by means of public transportation only and use their luxury vehicles only when it is an emergency. The next big problem Bangalore faces is that of garbage disposal. The lifestyle of an average person of the middle or upper classes in Bengaluru shows the conspicuous consumption patterns prevalent in the developed countries of the West. Enclaves with glitzy apartments, shopping malls, plush lawns and other markers of modern living dot the cityscape. No wonder a huge amount of waste generated every day in the residential areas, commercial complexes and industrial zones in the city. So where does all the waste go? A small semi-rural locality on the eastern fringes of the city is gasping for breath as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the municipal corporation, has been dumping around 1,800 tonnes of trash, almost half of the city’s waste in its vicinity every day. The average Bangalorean, however, seems to be unaware of how the waste generated by him is wreaking havoc in the lives of the residents of Mandur, 20 km from the city centre and close to the Bangalore International Airport. Once a sleepy village surrounded by mango orchards, grapevines and fields of ragi and jowar, Mandur’s landscape is now being rapidly overrun by multistorey apartments with the relentless expansion of Bengaluru city. But, the nightmare of the municipal landfill threatens the hopes unleashed by urbanization due to the presence of high demand in the area. The garbage dump is just 500 meters from Mandur’s main square and it is impossible to ignore the nauseating stench in the air even a kilometer away. According to official estimates, more than 500 trucks dump garbage in the landfill every night. Most of Mandur’s residents are exasperated with the garbage landfill in the corner of their village. The stench emanating from the dump has made their life hell. It is true that when they claim that the garbage is responsible for most of the diseases that afflict them. The villagers have protested several times to express their anger at the inability of the state government and the municipal corporation to solve the garbage problem. Around 70 percent of the waste is biodegradable. Another 20 percent comprise plastic waste, which can be recycled. The remaining 10 percent is hazardous waste emanating from hospitals and industries, and it needs to scientifically disposed of. The actual problem is – waste segregation is not effective, people’s mentality has to change. This has to be strongly inputted into the juvenile minds of this country. There has to be a strong form of education which would make the average citizens to change for the better future. “I don’t think that the issue is the rising population. Morally it is wrong to point a finger at the growth of population and its needs. The blame however lies with ineffective methods to deal with this growth” says an immigrant from Kerala. We are of a different opinion on this. The problem lies with the mentality of the public. We have to do away with the “not in my backyard” attitude. Everyone is only concerned with his/ her personal hygiene and comfort. The big picture of saving earth is still considered as an issue that only higher ups should deal with. The real Tragedy of Commons is our obliviousness to the looming doom even as we pilfer earth’s riches. The common man does not bother with the so called big issues. His time is spent thinking about his basic needs. The people are aware of words such as global warming, traffic emissions, pollution, Sulphur poisoning etc. The trouble lies in their ability to relate to these issues. The crucial link that relates the big problems with smaller more immediate ones is missing. If we stress on that missing link, if we are able to appeal to the conscience of the common man and inculcate the value of saving the earth, then and only then would we have taken the first step in securing our future. So far, the approach to creating awareness in the people is failing because of how we view the problem. The issue of saving the earth is not in itself the end. We view global warming or climate change as the end result of our activities. This is where we are wrong. These changes are a continuous process, a cause and effect. Our past was defined by it and our future will be decided by it, unless we take a step back and relook on our faults. It has been rightly said that the earth has enough for everyone’s needs but not for even one’s greed. As long as we keep finding scapegoats instead of solutions we won’t get past the “there is a problem” mark.
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Susruth
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