This year 2016, Bangalore is witnessing one of the harshest Summer... probably beating all the records as in many days in this April it crossed 35deg C mark. Also unlike normal Bangalore weather, as it used to be, whenever temperature increases, it used to rain in the evening. I heard from Old Bangalorites, in Pre 1990's it used to rain almost daily in the evenings in Summer. Bangalore is called the Pensioners Paradise and Garden City !!!
One of the beautify city in India and I remember when I was young, we used to consider Bangalore as a cool place to pamper during School Summer holidays... Bangalore in my mind is comparable to hillstations and colonial style building and landscape and weather like Ooty, Kodaikanal...
However till 1995 it was nice and cool, once the Y2K problem and the opportunity it posed, the development of IT Sector industry begun to descent in Bangalore, and things starts changing..
For employment purpose, Bangalore developed rapidly, people from all parts of India start coming to Bangalore for a better Career, many MNC companies, particulary IT starts opening their centres in Bangalore, and quickly bangalore become Cyper city and window of opportunities and talented manpower makes Bangalore one of the fastest developing city in India.. Apart for IT, Business process outsourcing industry, KPOs, LPOs, and many MNC R&D centres starts operations in Bangalore.
The main reasons attributes initially was the advantage of fabulous, meditarian type of climatic conditions... Cloudy skies, average temperature, round the year rain, moderate cold and one of the few cities in India which have all the four+1 seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, Rainy , and autumn. As Bangalore used to have rain almost round the year. It used to get
Jan- March- Mango showers,
April -June- Premonsoon showers,
July - Oct- South west monsoon rains,
Nov-Dec- North East monsoon rains.
Bangalore was called Lake City, In the 1960s the number of tanks and lakes was 280 and less than 80 in 1993. However, now it is having on 17 good lakes., rest all encroached and building and high rises filled the lakes.Most of the lakes have vanished due to encroachment and construction activity for urban infrastructure expansion.
Also the city's green cover has been cleared for development and rapid urbanization. According to a research study the Green cover in Bangalore has decreased by 66 per cent and water bodies by 74 per cent in the last 40 years. The mindless cutting down of trees for construction of building has reduced green cover with has serious implications for the city’s environmental and ecological health.
It appears Bangalore has crossed the threshold of urbanization, which is evident from a range of psychological, social and health impacts on residents including dramatic increase in obesity, asthma, traffic problems, road accidents etc. As per the experts opinion a city must maintain at least 33 per cent green cover to maintain ecological balance.
It is time to wake-up, this year 2016, Summer has shown to us, that Bangalore is no more "Old Bangalore" and for the first time in history Bangalore has crossed 40 deg C this summer and entered into the 40C club. This is not a good sign.,
All citizens and NGOs should educate the common people and the admistrators to plant more trees, to increase green cover and to preserve the existing lakes and the gardens...but it is too late..as there is no space in the city for traffic and where can they plant trees!!??
But let us be Optimistic, as they say, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER...
writing this, looking forward to have the first real Summer Showers at Bangalore.. will post when it rains....
