De-urbanisation is way forward for cities like Bengaluru to survive era of climate change: Environment expert Vimlendu Jha

New Delhi: Environment expert Vimlendu Jha said that it was important for Bengaluru to de-urbanise and focus on its wetlands and its green cover to avoid flooding in parts of the IT capital of the country.

On Wednesday, speaking to ANI, Vimlendu Jha said, “This year we have seen occasions of flooding in parts of Bengaluru due to encroachments over lakes and wetlands. Earlier there were lakes which were able to absorb excess water. It is important for Bengaluru to de-urbanise and focus on its wetlands and its green cover. We can’t look at creating a city for only human beings and ignoring its natural ecosystem. De-urbanisation is the way forward for cities like Bengaluru to survive the era of climate change.”

He further said that the flooding in parts of Bengaluru was happening due to haphazard urbanisation that was taking place.

“There has been 1000 percent growth in urban population in Bengaluru and there has been 60 to 70 percent loss of wetlands and green cover. You have a city that is so unplanned. Earlier it was a city of lakes and had a very natural filtration and water management system that has been plundered due to haphazard urbanisation. The flood that we see in Bengaluru is because of bad urban planning,” he said.

Jha said that this is the era of climate change so the intensity of rainfall was extremely high which causes water-logging in various areas.

“The inconvenience in traffic, water logging in various areas, the life in the IT capital goes to a standstill because of incessant rainfall and the floods. We cannot ignore the natural ecosystem that the city has,” he further said. Earlier, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy criticised the Congress government in Karnataka for its handling of recent rainfall that has led to widespread flooding and waterlogging in Bengaluru.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Kumaraswamy likened the situation in Bengaluru to the Italian city of Venice.

He pointed out that many areas in the city were inundated, forcing residents to seek shelter in hotels, and noted that the floods had also resulted in crop destruction.

“The Congress government has turned Bengaluru city into the Italian city of Venice, where people have to travel in boats. The government has created the same situation here… Many areas of Bengaluru are completely waterlogged. People are living in hotels, and the crops that farmers have grown are destroyed. We had once seen efforts to turn Bengaluru into Singapore, but now they have made ‘Brand Bengaluru’ into Venice,” Kumaraswamy said.