What encompasses sustainability? Is it merely the structures, our living and working spaces or is it the manner in which our villages and urban spaces are shaping up? Or is it a lifestyle which is consciously chosen, designed, lived in? How sustainable are our cities and villages? Where are we heading?
These and many more concerns were addressed in an enthralling two-day seminar on sustainability of living and working spaces, held recently by a joint initiative of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) Karnataka Chapter and the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID), Bengaluru Regional Chapter.
While Architect Kirtee Shah spoke on where and how our cities are heading because of bad design and lack of sustainable interventions and planning, keynote speakers, social worker C.K. Ganguly and environmentalist Leo Saldanha, made scintillating presentations on the sustainability of villages and city of Bengaluru respectively.
The perception of the threat, about ecology and environment being destroyed needs to be there; how much awareness, recognition prevails determines the level of action or inaction, contended Leo Saldanha, in his engrossing speech on the plight of Bengaluru. “Architecture translates over generations; it needs to be responsible where there is interaction between the architect, city planners and residents of the city. This is totally absent, without an integrated role, the engagement is more project to project”, he lamented.
Unrecognisable
Stating that the exploitation and transformation of the garden city over the last three decades has left it unrecognisable from its earlier fabric, he added, “The green belt that existed in 1999 has almost totally disappeared with land conversions happening without responding to the demographics of the city.” Pointing that this was the result of lack of accountability of the planners to the people, Saldanha stated, “There has been no sense of integration of a proposed neighbourhood with the existing neighbourhood’s capacity to absorb the new development. This has ensued disaster.”
The city earlier had 600 lakes and 840 kms of Rajakaluves. “These have been lost to built-up area, cutting off the flow of water to our lakes on one side and flooding in the wetland areas which now house buildings”, he pointed. “The population of the city two decades from now will reach 2.5 crore. As for Karnataka, 60 per cent of its population will be in its urban spaces. How are we going to address the water requirement for this growth?”
Right approach
Be it water, solid waste management, traffic planning, or unstructured growth, the city reflects a total lack of sensitive and sensible planning, he stated. “Designing the city, keeping in perspective the traditional fabric, where the elitist presence is removed and local population is engaged with in the planning process, is the way forward”, Saldanha contended.
Concurred Kirtee Shah, “Our planners do not understand the scale, dimension, gravity and consequences of urbanisation. What we need to ask is, do we have a socially just, economically productive, culturally vibrant, politically participatory, environmentally sustainable, physically resilient, people-centric city.”
Success story
Ganguly had an interesting story to relate, the story of an astounding transformation across 175 villages that he had christened the Timbuktu. It was way back in 1990 when young Ganguly decided to work in the villages in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, after purchasing an area of 32 acres. The entire region was a dry forest, akin to the savannah grasslands, with less than 300 to 400 mm of rainfall annually, the forest almost disappeared, greeted by barren hills.
“There were only two species of flora when I moved in. Currently there are 400 species. The animals have returned, including the grey wolves and the black buck along with over 100 types of bird species. As for cropping, due to lack of water, the villagers had moved to mono-cropping, of merely groundnut cultivation from their earlier multi-cropping. Now, with the revival of tanks and lakes and the increase in ground water, pulses and millet cultivation is back”, says Ganguly, listing the astonishing progress achieved in the villages by addressing systematically and consistently the comprehensive sustainable growth of the region, keeping in perspective the local ecological fabric.
Over the three decades, Ganguly has worked with over 22,000 families in 175 villages, including women, children, the differently abled, besides agricultural labourers. His focus was on making them self-sustaining, be it in water management, farming, marketing, banking, education, health or other fields. “The women have been aided to come up with an alternative banking system where they save and lend from the resources collected. Organic farming methods have been taught to enable them to cultivate without pesticides and chemical fertilizers.”
Ganguly has also helped form cooperatives for farmers, weavers, agricultural labourers, and soap makers, where they produce and sell to an established market, making their occupation financially sustainable besides opening the avenue for a cooperative business enterprise. Likewise, over 2000 children are offered education where the teaching goes beyond the three R’s, to train them in performing arts, environment and ecological rights.
These transformations happened merely because the focus was on the local fabric and the methodology opted was sustainable practices that were relevant to the local context.