Unplanned urbanisation on Hulimavu lake floodplains worsened B'luru floods, says expert

Flood

Not just the Hulimavu lake, settlements around all the lakes in Bengaluru are a product of unplanned urbanisation and may face similar situations in case of such breaches.

Sanyukta Dharmadhikari

On Sunday afternoon, around 300 people found knee-deep water inside their homes in Bengaluru’s Hulimavu and BTM Layout area. Though the reason for the unprecedented amount of water that entered people’s homes was reported was a lake bund breach, the actual cause is a bit more severe and worrisome, experts say. For in the case of heavy rains, the people living around Bengaluru’s many lakes could face such inundation every time.  The area that flooded on Sunday is the floodplain of the Hulimavu lake. Floodplains are defined as the area of flat land alongside a river. This area is the first to get covered in water when a river floods or overflows and usually if left empty, the water percolates into the ground itself or has the space to flow away.  However, unplanned urbanisation in floodplains and the tendency of authorities not to follow plans have converted Bengaluru into a sort of a cement block that does not allow extra water to percolate or flow away.  “In a rational environment, what we have to do is to delineate the floodplains and avoid construction on those flood plains,” says Raj Bhagat Palanichamy, a GIS expert based in Chennai.  “In Bengaluru, unplanned urbanisation and not adhering to plans when the regulation in itself is minimal, has led to a rampant urbanisation process. These floodplains used to be agricultural land in Bengaluru. Now, we have built layouts and apartments on it. The effect of the Hulimavu lake breach could have been minimised if these flood plains had been conserved and left alone,” Palanichamy adds. This leads to excessive flooding even in the event of a small breach. Satellite image animation shows d destruction of flood plains in Gottigere -#Hulimavu- Madiwala valley due to unplanned urbanization Now there's no space to hold water during floods n no space for percolation either Today when Hulimavu lake breached it's flooding neighbourhoods pic.twitter.com/6KyhDmPcsb — Raj Bhagat Palanichamy (@rajbhagatt) November 24, 2019 According to the Karnataka government website, there are around 81 lakes in Bengaluru, out of which 34 are recognized as live lakes. While most were mainly formed for irrigation of the areas downstream, a couple of lakes in Bengaluru were formed to provide drinking water to the citizens living around the waterbody. Palanichamy says that the area around all the lakes in Bengaluru has now been urbanised.  “We are not protecting our floodplains. What matters is not the distance between the lake and the construction, we have to keep in mind where the water might flow, where the floodplain is - in Hulimavu lake case it will flow to the north - and we have to keep in mind the elevation of the area,” Palanichamy says.  So what can be done? “For newly expanding areas, it is important to delineate the floodplains and not allow any kind of constructions. For the already existing urban settlements, we need to delineate the area and the floodplains and build resilience plan around it with an engineering angle. Currently, stormwater drains in the city are not enough because half the time sewage is dumped into them. We have to figure out a way to reduce the sewer water flow and reuse the sewage water,” Palanichamy says. This may not just minimise the floods in case of a lake breach, but may also help during monsoons as well.  Read: Hulimavu lake breach: Residents left to clean up as civic body indulges in blame game Lost lakes, encroached drains: Why some parts of Bengaluru flooded worse than others      

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Coffee Day-owned wood processing unit DAFFCO shuts operations in K'taka

Labour

DAFFCO said in a notice that the services of all workmen at the factory stand terminated and that they will be paid compensation ‘subject to availability of funds’.

Prajwal Bhat

Dark Forest Furniture Company (DAFFCO), owned by Cafe Coffee Day, has shut down operations at its factory in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru with immediate effect. The decision was confirmed in a statement released by a company official on Monday in which the tragic demise of Coffee Day founder VG Siddartha and financial constraints were cited as reasons for the closure of the wood processing factory. "(After the) demise of the founder and promoter, the other existing management team made efforts to revive the unit. However, it is to be noted that the company was simultaneously going through acute financial constraints and also lack of orders. Hence, we regret to inform all the employees that business/manufacturing/all activities at the factory located at Chikkamagaluru stands closed with effect from 25 November 2019," the company said in its statement. The company added that all workmen at the factory have been terminated and that they will be paid compensation "subject to availability of funds". There are 65 workers employed in the factory and the group of workers collectively approached the Chikkamagaluru Deputy Commissioner requesting that they be paid a fair compensation amount. “There has been no work in the last 25 days and in concillary meetings held with the management, we were told that the factory would continue operations. But today, when we turned up for work, we found that a notice was stuck on the front gate of Amalgamate Bean Company (ABC) stating that the factory has been shut down. We are demanding the company management to give us work or give us fair compensation as per the rules," said an employee working at the factory for over six years.  Workers also said that ever since the demise of VG Siddartha, the number of workers at the factory had reduced from around 120 to 65 after staff members and contract-based workers left the company.   Employees of DAFFCO after it closed its factory in Chikkamagaluru  The office of the Assistant Labour Commissioner in Chikkamagaluru confirmed that it received a letter from employees at the factory. A concillary meeting will be held between the management of the company and its protesting workers on December 2 to discuss the issue.  DAFFCO is a subsidiary of the investment firm Sivan Securities, which maintained a wood processing plant in Chikkamagaluru to manufacture furniture products for Cafe Coffee Day outlets and other establishments owned by Coffee Day. Sivan Securities was launched in 1984 by VG Siddartha. He invested the profits from his firm to buy coffee plantations in Chikkamagaluru district since his family has a history of growing coffee.  He set up ABC, a coffee trading company in 1993 and the premises of DAFFCO is behind ABC's facility in Chikkamagaluru. He had pledged shares of Sivan Securities for taking loans.  With the factory shutting shop today, police personnel were present at ABC today. As on March 31, 2019, the total debt of the group company Coffee Day Enterprises stood at Rs 6,547 crore, which is nearly 2.5 times the net worth of Rs 2,529 crore. In July this year, the business fraternity in India received jolt when Siddartha was found dead after drowning in the Nethravati River in Mangaluru in July. A purported letter written by him to his employees indicated that mounting financial debt, pressure from banks and tax authorities, and mistakes in business dealings drove him to end his life. 

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In pictures: Colours and celebration bring to life Bengaluru’s 12th Namma Pride

LGBTQ+

The 12th anniversary of Namma Pride was "The Walk of Tribute and Remembrance" to celebrate all those instrumental to the LGBTQ+ movement.

Sanyukta Dharmadhikari

“One, two, three, four, break open your closet door!” “Happy Pride!” “We’re here, we’re queer!” a hundred cheers rose to the sky on Sunday afternoon as people hit the streets — Bengaluru was celebrating its 12th Namma Pride.  Starting from one of the gates of the Kempegowda Metro Station, accompanied by dance, music and sheer joy, hundreds joined in to participate in the march organised by the Campaign for Sexuality Minorities Rights (CSMR), a coalition of several LGBTQ groups and individuals based in Bengaluru. “This is for everyone who is afraid to come out; today is there to encourage them, to support them,” said Johnson, beaming, waving a bright rainbow-coloured scarf around.  People across ages, genders and sexualities marched for pride in Bengaluru and some even got their children along. And the constant accompaniment to the joy? The sounds of drums, with the band thoroughly enjoying themselves — encouraging participants to just let go.  “This is one of my first marches since I came out, I am so excited to be here, the environment, it’s just awesome to be here,” Priyesh* told TNM, from under a large LGBTQ+ flag being carried by around a dozen people.  Started in 2008, Namma Pride has seen the numbers grow over the past decade. Sunday’s march covered a distance of about five kilometres, starting from Tilak Park and culminating at Townhall in Bengaluru. The 12th anniversary of Namma Pride was "The Walk of Tribute and Remembrance" to pay respects to all those who have been instrumental to the LGBTQ+ movement and remembering lives lost in the fight for equal rights. Parag, one of the participants, was in town from Pune, and told TNM, “India is changing and I am happy that Section 377 is scrapped, wow. And I am hoping for a lot more things, a lot more change in India.” But also looming over Bengaluru Pride 2019 was the controversial Trans Bill 2019, which is being debated in the Rajya Sabha. Held up alongside the LGBTQ flag was a large trans flag as well and many placards shouted slogans condemning the Trans Bill, demanding that their voices be heard too. “The number of participants from the transgender community was lesser this year... they were really, really unhappy and maybe they are dispirited because of the Bill. We look forward to the government changing things this year,” gay rights activist Anthony Peter Sylvester told TNM.  *Name changed

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How the Small-Donor Revolution Became a $200 Million Payday for Middlemen

Low-dollar, repeat contributions are a great talking point for campaigns. They’ve also resulted in a massive financial windfall for credit card processors.

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After Monkey Bar shuts down, employees and bar owners lament future of Bengaluru's pubs

Employment

The protestors laid down flowers and candles in front of Monkey Bar’s doors and mourned the loss of employment.

Theja Ram

Bengaluru’s iconic Monkey Bar shut its doors on Monday and over 200 employees of various bars and restaurants formed a human chain outside the outlet in Indiranagar to demand justice. Employees of Monkey Bar, DJs, local musicians and former employees of other bars that were shut down in Indiranagar all showed up outside the venue in a show of solidarity. The protestors laid down flowers and candles in front of Monkey Bar’s doors and mourned the loss of employment. Speaking to TNM, Pravesh Pandey, owner of popular brewery Big Brewsky, said that over 2,500 employees have lost their jobs in Bengaluru over the last few months as they were not able to procure a public entertainment license. Ever since the Bengaluru Police made it mandatory for bars and restaurants to procure an entertainment license, a number of establishments in Indiranagar have shut down. This license is necessary if establishments want to play either live or recorded music. Popular watering holes including Monkey Bar, BFlat, BTDT and Humming Tree have shut down over the last few months as their business model was dependent on being able to play live and pre-recorded music. “Around 2% of Bengaluru’s population is employed in bars and restaurants. The current scenario is such that restaurants and bars are not doing well. These employees gathered here to demand justice as they are unable to get jobs. The demand is to find amicable solutions so that people don’t lose more jobs and there is ease of doing business as well,” Pravesh Pandey said. Protestors were holding placards that read “give us our jobs back,” “open the restaurants,” “we want jobs.” However, they dispersed after 30 minutes to avoid causing inconvenience to commuters and residents of the area. Why are restaurants and bars shutting down? Most of the bars and restaurants have shut down as they were not able to procure an Occupational Certificate, which is mandatory for being able to procure the entertainment license. A few months ago, the Bengaluru police began enforcing rules laid down under Licensing and Controlling Places of Public Entertainment (Bangalore City) Order, 2005, which requires establishments to get licenses for entertainment programmes. From 2018, the Bengaluru police asked all pubs and restaurants in the city to submit a variety of documents to procure an entertainment license, after the Supreme Court upheld the licensing rules. However, most of Bengaluru's core areas have violated building bye-laws in one way or another. The biggest problem for these commercial establishments is that their buildings were earlier low rise residential buildings. These residential buildings have been converted into commercial spaces. However, the problem lies in the fact that most of these structures have not given set-backs or followed fire safety norms. Since the structures are completely different from the original building plans approved by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and have violated the zonal regulations and building bye-laws, these building owners were unable to procure an OC. The BBMP itself has estimated that 85% of buildings in the core areas of Bengaluru do not have an OC. The Vikas Soudha and the BBMP Head Office’s Annexe 3 buildings too don’t have OCs. It was due to the massive scale of illegal constructions that the Karnataka government had proposed to normalise them under the Akrama Sakarama scheme. Since the issue of Akrama Sakarama is sub-judice, no action has been taken yet. Restaurant and bar owners say that imposing such rules for a license is problematic to local businesses. The impact “There are so many people who have lost jobs. We are not finding jobs in restaurants as most of them are on the verge of shutting down because of the entertainment license. We want to comply with all the laws but they should also ensure that it does not affect livelihoods,” said Gopinath, a protestor, who works with Azure Hospitality. Speaking to TNM, Sunil Shetty, one of the owners of BFlat, says that if the government does not find a solution, then many more restaurants and bars would eventually shut down. The Karnataka High Court, on November 21, had directed the Bengaluru Police and the BBMP to make a list of all the restaurants and bars that would shut down due to the entertainment license. “Some of the most popular restaurants and bars will shut down. We appeal to the officials and only ask that we arrive at some sort of consensus so that so many people’s livelihoods are not affected. We want ease of doing business,” he said.     

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Now, mannequins to ‘regulate’ traffic: Bengaluru police’s latest, bizarre initiative

Six years ago, Bengaluru police introduced cardboard cut-outs of cops to trick drivers into following traffic rules.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Courtesy: Bangalore Traffic Police

The Bengaluru Traffic Police have taken to installing mannequins wearing the traffic police uniforms in a bizarre attempt to curb traffic violations on the roads. Pictures show the mannequins wearing the standard traffic cop uniform: high-visibility jackets, white shirt, khaki pants, and steel-toe boots. Some have even been spotted wearing sunglasses. Chief of Traffic, Ravi Kanthe Gowda, says, “There are lots of people who commit traffic offences when there are no police around to catch them. We put these up so that the people know there is police presence around.”  The traffic police have installed around 30 life-size traffic police mannequins all over the city on a trial basis, using the assumption that drivers behave better on the road when there is some authority watching over them.  Bengaluru Traffic Police statistics indicate that the number of fatalities have declined in recent years. The figures for fatal accidents in 2017 was 4,455 and in 2018, it was 4,133. However, what has been noticed is that blatant traffic violations occur all over the city in the absence of the traffic police: signal jumps, cell-phone usage, and not wearing helmets. There is also a need for increased traffic monitoring as the number of vehicles on Bengaluru’s roads go up every year. Ravi added, “We’re changing the location of the mannequins every day, so that repeat offenders can be cautioned and we can use our workforce in spots that really need our attention.” However, this is not the first time that the police have taken to using a unique measure to make people obey traffic rules. In 2013, the Bengaluru Traffic Police had installed cardboard cutouts at busy junctions of the city. The move was met with a lot of ridicule at the time, but some road users said it had a positive effect on road traffic behaviour as they were actually tricked into thinking it was a real cop.   

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Hulimavu lake breach: Residents left to clean up as civic body indulges in blame game

Flood

Over 300 people living in Hulimavu’s Krishna Layout returned to their homes on Monday morning only to find that their belongings had been washed away in the water.

Prajwal Bhat

Theja Ram

Slush, mud, weeds and garbage had entered the homes of people living in Bengaluru's Hulimavu on Sunday afternoon after sewage from the Hulimavu Lake flooded their homes. Over 300 people living in Krishna Layout returned to their homes on Monday morning only to find that their belongings had been washed away in the water. Adjoining the Hulimavu Lake on the northern boundary is Krishna Layout. The back walls of the hutments in the colony are attached to the cement wall of the primary stormwater drain connecting to the lake. The houses in the area are boxed in with just a three-foot gap on the northern end of the locality for people to enter and exit. On Sunday afternoon, an earthmover had arrived near the lake's exit where the bund's wall was dug up to allow the water from the overflowing lake to pass through the rajakaluve (stormwater drain). The damage "Initially, we didn't pay much attention to it because it is a common occurrence. But when the water started flowing out of the kaluve (stormwater drain), some of us went and tried to put mud and stones to stop the water, but the force of the water was too much," says Shobha, a 35-year-old resident of the area. By 2 pm, the water began gushing into Krishna Layout from the three-foot gap in the northern boundary. Residents climbed up the roof and camped on the tarpaulin even as frantic efforts to stop the water flow began. "When the water came gushing down suddenly, we ran away from the house. Even the police could not do much as the force of the water was too high," said Ashwath, a 45-year-old gardener. The flash-flood devastated the residents of Krishna Layout as most of them are blue-collar workers. 38-year-old Valli, says that all her clothes and utensils were washed away by the floods. Her LPG cylinder had landed up at the doorstep of another neighbour. The blame game According to Arekere corporator Bhagyalakshmi Murali, two weeks ago, the state government had released Rs 6 crore via the Bengaluru Development Authority for the rejuvenation of the lake. This happened after the state government diverted the Rs 24 crore allocated for lake rejuvenation towards helping victims of North Karnataka floods. "When the floods began, we found that a contractor named Karthik, who was carrying out repair works of sewage treatment plants and stormwater drains in the area, had sent an earthmover to the lake. Karthik's men dug up a five-foot hole in the bund located at the exit point of the lake. His men did this without calculating whether the mud wall would be able to withstand the force of the water," he said. Corporator Murali says that the BBMP Assistant Engineer-in-charge of Hulimavu Lake rejuvenation, Shilpa K, informed him on Sunday that the BBMP had sent Karthik to start lake rejuvenation work. However, when TNM contacted Shilpa, she denied that the BBMP had issued the order to the contractor. "We do not know who did this. The BBMP just got funds for rejuvenating the lake. We haven't even floated tenders for the rejuvenation. How can we be blamed for issuing the order? We have written up a report based on what the residents told us. We are investigating the matter," Shilpa said. BBMP corporator Bhagyalakshmi says that the civic body is yet to procure CCTV footage from Krishna Kuteera circle, where the camera has captured footage of the earthmover that was deployed to dig up the bund. "We got busy with cleaning up after the flood. We will examine the footage, get a hold of the driver of the earthmover and question him. We will get to the bottom of this," she said.    

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