Bangalore, Ooops Bengaluru has changed, not only its name but what it was twelve years ago and what it is now. I used to enjoy going around in bangalore, not much of vehicles, fresh air, trees, gardens, playgrounds, etc. In the name of Development bengaluru has been robbed, it has lost what ever it was termed as. Earlier it was termed as Garden city, Pensioners Paradise, etc but it has been replaced by Garbage City, Concrete City, Suicide city, and what not.
Here is a comparison of some of the places then and now and some places which are on the verge of being rolled down:
1.
In eight years 4th Main road, Jayanagar has changed. I used to call this stretch of road as “Hasiru Mantapa” (Green Cover) but now i have renamed it to “Metro Mantapa”.
View from Google Earth, you can see the scar on the green cover. (I think Google earth is not updated, as the view from ground gives a completely different picture).
2.
This picture is of Palace Gutthalli, it has remained so, but in a few months Bengalureans will not find this spot. Road widening is here, all the trees on this stretch of 1.2kms (from Mekhri circle to Palace Gutthalli will be axed). And No of trees to face the axe is 700+ (many are aged 25+ years). I have very wonderful memories of this place, we lived very close to this place and most of our morning walks and fun and masti used to happen in and around this place.
3.
Sampige Road, Malleswaram: Malleswaram is one of the oldest residential and commercial localities in Bengaluru. This road was named after looking at the trees which were on either side of the street, Sampige or Champak trees.
I didn’t see even a single surviving Sampige tree on this entire stretch now. This really shows that we have moved away from our roots and thought of our ancestors.
What we are going to give our future generation is just this
Time to think again, road widening doesn’t solve the problem, it just adds up. A dude thinks “We have a traffic free road, if I have a car or a bike then I can reach office faster”. 1000 others think in same lines in a month you have additional 1000 cars/bikes.
Road widening, flyovers, underpasses, etc have added more vehicles and in turn traffic congestion’s. This is a vicious cycle and it will continue till alternate ways are found or oil prices become unaffordable.
RaoWords 