Meera Bhardwaj:
The pride of Bengaluru and a major green cover for south Bengaluru, the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is still witnessing littering and dumping of plastic waste by visitors and tourists.
Despite the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens’ authority making efforts to create awareness, carry out daily monitoring, surveillance, identifying violators and taking action, people seem to clearly lack civic sense and still dump plastic and paper waste in the pristine environs of the historical garden.
Tucked away in the southern part of Bengaluru city, the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is spread across 240 acres and houses nearly 3000 species – ranging from exotic to indigenous flora, heritage trees from the times of Hyder Ali, collection of roses, bonsai and endangered Western Ghats species.
Established in 1856, it attracts walkers, tourists, visitors, researchers, students from India and abroad. Therefore, the maintenance and upkeep of the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is no easy job and is a very tough task given the total lack of civic sense of Indians.
Littering especially by outside visitors and tourists persists in Lalbagh despite the setting up of waste bins and wooden bins in various shapes and sizes and colours across the vast garden which has four entry gates. The regular walkers in the garden have made many efforts to educate people.
But alas! People still litter – dumping even left over food items and soda bottles. “Unfortunately for them, waste collection begins only after we have exited the gardens and it is so frustrating when people don’t even bother to apologize when we point out their bad habits,” the walkers say.
Despite monitoring and surveillance, visitors just dump plastic wrappers, plastic bottles, paper bags, covers and what not on the salubrious grounds without any care or concern. At some corners of the garden from the West Gate side, one can even see people smoking inside the verdant premises and throwing the cigarette butts behind bushes and trees.
Regular walkers who come to Lalbagh in the early morning hours are aghast at the behaviour of even educated people who after consuming food products just dump the food wrappers and covers anywhere and everywhere.
Tharangini, a concerned walker says, “I’ve been a regular at Lalbagh for a while now and it is such a bliss each time, but lately it has also been extremely disheartening to see how some people who visit Lalbagh for its nature and beauty do not think twice before strewing around empty soda cans and all kinds of wrappers all over the place. The other day, I went to my favourite meditation spot, I was shocked to see more 20-30 cigarette butts lying around. It is very unfortunate that people seem to lack the basic civic sense of keeping a beautiful place like this clean.”
Speaking to Green Minute News, Dr M Jagadish, Joint Director, Horticulture (Parks & Gardens), Bengaluru said four home guards have been employed at the four gates just to check and not allow any plasticware and other items inside the garden. In fact, usage of all plastic bottles, plates etc is banned inside and even food packets are not allowed.
He adds, “However, some 2-3 percent people hiding food (wrapped in plastic or paper) inside their jackets, shawls, jerkins, etc manage to smuggle them to feed pigeons, stray dogs and birds at 13 places inside the garden. This has been curtained but still some people manage to feed birds and animals. WE have introduced clearing of such litter from morning, afternoon and evening till 8 pm and the staff works in one to two and a half shifts to maintain the gardens.”
Another Bengaluru resident and walker Pooja adds, “Although Lalbagh Botanical Garden is a beautiful and historic park but the plastic litter of bottles, and food wrappers is unseemly and affecting its natural beauty.”
She adds, “Such waste harms the environment, pollutes the surroundings, and ruins the experience for everyone. Visitors must act responsibly by using dustbins and helping keep Lalbagh clean and green.”
Lalbagh has information boards to create awareness in people to maintain cleanliness and hygiene, says Dr Jagadish.
The Joint Director adds, “We have eco-friendly buggies for people to go around the garden. Further, all monitoring is done by our staff on bicycles to ensure clean air. In fact, all the bio-waste that is generated here is processed and turned into compost inside the garden itself. We have four big compost pits at four places here, if excess waste is generated, it is sent to our bio-centre in Hullimavu on the outskirts of the city.”
Urban conservationist and tree doctor of Bengaluru Vijay Nishanth adds, “The littering of single use disposables at Lalbagh is very disturbing. Heavy penalties should be imposed on people who litter and monitoring should be done properly and more surveillance cameras should be installed in major points where people visit.”
He adds, “It is an urban green space & also home to numerous wild species of birds, butterflies and other wildlife. If littering continues, what will happen to birds which will ingest these microplastics in the dumped food wastes.”
The Joint Director, Horticulture (Park & Gardens) informs, “Earlier, we had only 10 cameras but we have now installed 120 CCTV at entry gates and strategic points for better monitoring and surveillance. WE keep on monitoring and stepped up our efforts but still some 2-3 percent of people who visit Lalbagh are responsible for littering even now.”
Dr Jagadish adds, “Earlier, even walkers used to bring pooja materials and dump it in the Lalbagh Lake and four tractor loads of these materials had to be extracted and transported outside the Lalbagh. Now this has stopped. Recently, we have identified some 25 people littering, educated them and imposed fines. Rs 100 per person is the fine imposed on violators, however, civic sense should prevail & our efforts to educate people on keeping the garden spick and span continues.”
Even as we traverse the garden, one can see many people posing for selfies and taking photos in front of the rose garden, the band stand and lakeside.
Dr Jagadish adds, “We allow mobile phones and DSLR cameras, however, video cameras are completely banned inside the Lalbagh. Further, our future plans include – making the garden 100 percent vehicle free & plastic free. Recent upgrades and developments include – a library, museum, an eco-shop in the Bonsai park, a virtual museum in the Krumbiegel Hall and future upgradation of the rose garden to house 800 varieties.”
On their part, daily walkers from the neighbouring areas of Lalbagh call for stricter control on littering and enforcement of “heavy penalties on violators” by the Horticulture Department.
However, one hopes stricter sense of civic sense prevails on the part of visitors as the famed Lalbagh Botanical Gardens is not only our heritage but also one of the most significant lung spaces of Bengaluru city.
(PHOTO CREDIT: ALL IMAGES BY THARANGINI & POOJA @ LALBAGH BOTANICAL GARDENS)