Green Bengaluru...

I love Bengaluru. Loved more when it was Bangalore of 80's and 90's with much more greenery, un-crammed roads, less pollution, little-more friendly people and with a 25-29 temperature climate. Ask anyone what's great about Bangalore and the first thing they would tell is Climate. But now a lot has changed. Mean temperature has risen and climate is slowly turning warmer and more humid.

Now greenery is slowly disappearing. More and more trees are being felled for construction purposes, widening of roads and in the name of beautification drives?... I recall with shock an image published by the Times of India on an April Fool's Day in 2004 (or was it 2005) showing the beautiful green stretch of Bangalore's happening M.G. Road. Though it was a joke to many of them it was a real shocker!

Bangalore is still comparatively more "green" to other Indian cities, and for that, Bangaloreans should be much grateful to the Defence establishments that dot the city. Some 40 per cent or so of the total land area that comprises the heart of the city, I believe, is being held by a number of Defence establishments. And these lands are abundant with a variety of trees and beautiful gardens, though of late, new buildings and extension works of the existing ones are slowly encroaching on these small 'green belts' inside their compounds.

I wish if more acreage of land had been with them Bangalore would have been more green.