Experts discuss plans for sustainable Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Experts from various fields shared insights and proposed solutions to Bengaluru’s many challenges on Sunday at an event titled ‘BENGALURU 2050- Dialogues on Sustainability’.

The event was organized by Rotary of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to commemorate Earth Day 2024. During the event, several ideas were put forward with curbing urban sprawl and reducing congestion topping the list of possible solutions.

Hosting the first session, PG Diwakar, Isro chairman professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), said satellite images showed a 245% increase in the city’s built-up area between 1995 and 2020, at the expense of agricultural land and vegetation.

“Now there are technologies that allow us to create a 3D model of the city, which can provide real-time updates. If cities like Varanasi already have this, why not Bengaluru?” he said.

Harini Nagendra, director of Azim Premji University’s research center, drew attention to local wisdom. “While our Master Plans are now a decade or two out, we have found ancient inscriptions at lakes made centuries ago that mention ‘until the sun and the rocks survive’. We have to go local and have that big imagination to save our ecology.”

“It is time to impose a moratorium on development in Bengaluru and develop the cities in the outlying areas. This will decongest the city and reduce over-dependence on its resources,” said Naresh Narasimhan, an architect and urban planner.

He also emphasized the need to create self-sustaining ecologies, blurring the boundaries between rural and urban areas. “Singapore has a very high population density, but it manages it well by following a checkered system, where a low-density area is built next to a high-density area. We should take inspiration from such plans,” he said.