Trees falling, flooding, traffic jams that last hours - Bengaluru comes to a standstill every time it rains. Cyclone Vardah appears to have kept BBMP officials on their toes, but their efforts amount to little more than palliative care for an ailing city. Encroachments on stormwater drains and a total lack of data regarding ailing trees are part of the myriad troubles that the Palike has helped cause in the first place.
As usual when Chennai sneezes Bengaluru catches a cold. People’s woollies came out on Monday as temperatures dipped and it was drenched in 60.8 mm of rain while Cyclone Vardah battered neighbouring Chennai. Although the monthly average rainfall for December in Bengaluru is 15.7 mm, the cyclone saw the city receive four times that in just 24 hours.
As usual the rainfall sent city life out of gear and caused havoc on its roads. Traffic moved at snail’s pace and large puddles of water made movement difficult for two-wheeler riders. Trees were uprooted in Basaveshwaranagara, 11th cross Sadashivnagara, CR Quarters Mysuru Raste, KHB colony, Rajajinagara 10rth main, Gandhinagar 1st cross, New Thippasandra, Sanjaynagar, Padmanabhanagar, Maruti Nagar, Yelahanka New Town, Arakere Government School, Frazer Town, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Kundanahalli and Vijaya Bank colony, Vijaynagar, Koramangala, Jayanagar, and Banaswadi.
It is estimated that there are around 10 lakh trees in the city. Although a tree survey was announced in 2015 it has not taken off.
Strangely there was no flooding, with most low lying areas free of stagnant water despite the heavy rain. But commuters on the roads were the worst hit. Said Mr Srujan Bagirath, a software professional working in Manyata Tech Park, “I ride to work and back. I got drenched on Monday and on Tuesday as well. I could not even go out to buy groceries as it was so wet outside.”
We can't cut live trees. But dead trees are removed immediately. We have formed two prahari teams of 10 members each in every zone which are expected to rush and clear trees whenever they fall.
— G Padmavathi, mayor
For some the rain played spoil sport and ruined their plans for the day. Said an MBA student of Jain College, Rahul Suresh, “The rain ruined my plans for the day. My friends and I had planned to go to Wonderla Water Park on Mysore Road after classes on Tuesday, but we had to cancel.”
The BBMP, which was on alert owing to the rain, had its hands full clearing the roads of the trees. Mayor G.Padmavathi went around the city Tuesday morning and ensured that the uprooted trees were removed. “I left home at 7.45am in the morning and started at Vijayanagar where three trees had been uprooted. We dispatched 16 teams which worked in tandem to remove fallen trees and clear the roads all over the city,” she said, when contacted.
‘Encroachments, poor drainage system make us flood prone’
"Because of the technology we have and the ISRO satellites we can predict a cyclone way ahead. But we are not prepared for natural disasters. Also the city is quite vulnerable to heavy rainfall. If there is a rainfall of 15mm per hour then it can create havoc," said Dr G S Srinivasa Reddy, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre( KSNDMC), who blames the city's poor civic infrastructure for much of the problem.
"The land-use pattern, road encroachment and poor drainage system make us vulnerable to urban floods," added Dr Reddy, whose centre has developed a mechanism called the Urban Flood Forecast System, which can predict the areas susceptible to flooding. In his view the disaster preparedness of a city depends a lot on the local government, the Union government and funding.
Meanwhile , Karnataka is in line to benefit from the World Bank assisted National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project aimed at helping India reduce its vulnerability to cyclones and other hydro-meteorological hazards along its coast. Besides Karnataka , other states likely to benefit from the project are Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.
But sadly, the city doesn’t have its own doppler radar yet. "Currently we are using the Chennai Doppler Radar," said a Meteorological department officer. According to sources the Union government has promised funding for two radars in Bengaluru and Mangaluru.
What is BWSSB doing to help matters?
As rain battered the city, trees were uprooted from around 20 places, leaving it once again at the mercy of the heavy wind and wet weather. Asked what precautions the BBMP was taking to prevent this recurring problem in every spell of heavy rain, an officer claimed its forest cell monitored the condition of the trees every month and removed all the dead ones. “But trees uprooting and falling is a natural phenomenon. We can't cut the living trees. But if any local resident complains about the condition of some trees we remove them,” he added.
Possible solution
Environmental activist, Vinay Shrinivas believes the BBMP must conduct a tree census and study the health of trees in the city. It must then form ward committees and allow them to monitor the trees, he says.
