Bengaluru will be in trouble with groundwater as well as it gets more and more built-up.
Bengaluru is nostalgia capital - anyone who has lived here for more than a few years can talk about how things have gone downhill. The change is not just anecdotal. A study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in the city looked at what the city will be like in four years time, in 2020, if the present rate of growth and degradation continues. And the statistics are frightening with only 5 per cent of the city likely to be free of concrete and construction. This will have a major impact on groundwater, tree cover and even the famous weather.
Dr TV Ranachandra and his team at the centre for ecological sciences at the Indian institute of science told NDTV, "There has been a thousand per cent increase in concrete area. We have lost 18 per cent in vegetation and 79 per cent in water bodies this is really worrying. If the same situation continues, same trend continues by in 2020, 94 per cent of our Bangalore landscape will be covered with only concrete, that means we will have only 5 per cent of open space in the form of lake, greenery etc in Bangalore."
The city will be in trouble with groundwater as well as it gets more and more built-up. "We depend on the groundwater resources to the extent of 45 per cent only about 55 per cent comes from the Cauvery, 45 per cent is the groundwater dependency. Now with the concretisation, since there is no recharging happening, and also over exploitation groundwater table is also depleting, so in some places it is found only at 1400-1500 feet, Dr Ramachandra said.
The expansion into greater Bengaluru, flyovers, road-widening and the megaprojects like the never-ending Metro has meant the city has lost too many trees. There is now only one tree per 7 people in what was India's garden city.
And the disappearance of trees will further affect the city's weather - Bengaluru already saw record high temperature this summer.
Dr Ramachandra said, "Well, the concretisation, inappropriate architecture - we are losing the carbon sinks -the vegetation and water bodies they help in moderating the climate."