First of all, what is population explosion? You might be aware of the answer of this question. It’s like when your gully or society which used to be vacant or uninhabited, suddenly start to feel like more engaging. A large family in your neighbour has shifted and since then you have a more interactive society. So, what is that element do you think has changed the perception of yours? If you have observed precisely then you might guess, that it is the inflow of people that has made your locality more participatory. The sound of children playing in the evening and the constant sound of your neighbours chattering etc. Take this picture and superimpose it upon a very huge canvas. The output that you will see is the population explosion in a city. Definitely, there are reasons that acted as a catalyst for this process; you might want to ask this from your neighbour. And there are consequences of this, that I will answer you later in this article.
Pic Credit: BusinessLive
The population explosion can be defined as the “massive and sudden rise in the size of the population over a relatively smaller time period”. There could be plenty of reasons behind this phenomenon, be it a rapid decline in death rate and infant mortality rate and a rise in number of people in reproducible age. Urbanization also plays a major role in this. People migrate from rural area to urban area in search of a good lifestyle. There’s always a conception among people that the life in a city is much organised and the liabilities of urban life outweigh the rural interest. Well, that seem to be true when an economic growth and technological development takes place.
Time lapse.mp4Video Credit : Vikrant Anand
Not just for work, but people are also coming to Bengaluru in search of quality education. Bengaluru has the highest number of colleges in the entire nation.
This positions Karnataka on 3rd after
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra
Info Credit : All India Survey on Higher Education
The reason for the rapid urbanization could be this. Bengaluru has an annual GDP growth rate of 8.1% which is higher than the country’s average 6.8%. It is also now ranked as the city with the highest growth index for start-up hubs followed by London and Tel Aviv. The city is one among the nine international start-up hubs, outside the United States. In 2015, it was identified among the top twenty cities to have the best eco-systems for the start-ups in the world.
Let Us Go Back in Time...
Bengaluru did not become, what it is today, overnight. After the independence of the country it gave birth to six Public Sector Undertakings (PSU).
Public Sector Undertakings
A very huge step that Karnataka took was, when it introduced Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited(KEONICS) in 1976, with the sole objective of promoting electronics industries in Karnataka. It focused on setting up of world class infrastructure for the electronics and IT related industries in the state. It established the first Electronic City in the Asia which played a major role in making the Bangalore city as the Silicon Valley of our country. This helped major IT companies like Infosys, HP, Wipro, Tata Electronics Development Services and Siemens to make Bengaluru their headquarters. KEONICS provides IT training through its own centres to strengthen the IT community in each location by acting as a hub for all their IT related activities. All these factors have helped this city to grow, both economically and population wise. When these companies came to existence it also needed a much large workforce. It attracted a lot of workers from outside the state who came and settle here.
The main reason is the migration of huge number of population from other cities in search of work, that is why if you look more close into this matter, you will find that the population growth of urban areas is more than that of the rural areas. The urban region has grown three times faster than the state as a whole and it is now home to 16% of the state's population. In 2011, there were 4,378 people per square kilometer, up from 2,985 ten years before.
Effects and Consequences
When a city grows at such pace, it brings along many irregularities. Bengaluru is known for its lake but hardly will you find any lake. It is polluted from industrial and household waste. Improper waste management is a very huge issue in this city. No one can deny this that the lakes that were a great source of water to many people has turned almost into a landfill. Also, the ground water level of Bengaluru has reached to a very low point. People have dug up to 1000 feet in search of water. You might not realise the vulnerability of this situation, but what if I tell you that in Bihar, 200 feet is more than enough to take out the ground water. And excessive digging has caused the problem of dental and fluorosis. We'll see this in detail one by one.
Waste Management
Humans bring along garbage where ever they go. As the population has been on continuous growth, so is the amount of garbage. And it has become tougher for Bengaluru to manage its garbage.
Credit : Dailyhunt
When Bangalore ran out of land, it started using nearby villages to dump the garbage. A tiny village Mavallipura, 20km from Bengaluru, was once the victim. Local residents still suffer from the health problems. Even though the landfill was closed in 2012, yet many cases of cancer, kidney failure and skin diseases have been reported. In a report by Environment Support Group, it was found that E.Coli was present in the Mavallipura lake. The presence of Iron is still higher than the normal. The entire Mavallipura village is depended on this lake for domestic purpose and agricultural needs.
The situation is same in Koramangla block 5. Between more than 20 restaurants and pubs, there is a landfill. Whenever it rains, it leaves out a foul smell which is disturbing for both the cafe owners and the passersby.
Egrets feeding on the garbage in the sewer near Agara lake.
Pic Credit : Vikrant Anand
Agara Lake in HSR layout is also in an awful situation. While I was walking around the lake, I met Venkatesh and Prakash who are in their 30s and are auto drivers. They have been living in Venkatapura since their childhood. In a conversation with them I came to know that the wastewater from entire Jayanagar and J.P.Nagar get discharged in this sewer only. The sewer is connected to Byramangala lake which is inter-connected to Majestic, Bellandur and Vartur lake. All these lake meet up to form a very large area of Bengaluru. When the wastewater from all these areas fall into these sewers, it attract bacteria and diseases. “We got mosquito bites all over our body and we also suffer from skin problems because of the bacteria,” said Prakash . They also said that the chicken shop owners that are situated nearby, comes at night to dump chicken leavings into the sewer. Prakash also mentioned that some people who live around the lake throw their garbage into the sewer. All such garbage leads to the formation of bacteria.
They also said that during night the smell reduces but since the drainage from the houses of Jayanagar and J.P.Nagar is connected to this sewer only so, in the morning when people get ready for their work and wastewater flow from those houses, it starts to smell again. And when it rains or the wind blows the smell goes off temporarily, but no one has done anything to permanently treat this problem.
Loss of green lands.
According to globalforestwatch.org, from 2001 to 2018, Karnataka has lost 38.6 kha of tree cover.
Bengaluru has become home to many people whether for working class or students. Here is a byte from few people sharing their reasons to come to Bengaluru.
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