There’s something grossly wrong with the environment of Bangalore. Most people believe things have deteriorated in the last five years. But hold on, the majority believes that it is the government which should work towards improving the state of the environment.
According to the Teri Environmental Survey 2013, which looked at the state of environment in six major Indian cities including Bangalore, 55 per cent of the people believe that it should be the government which should be working towards safeguarding the environment and arresting environmental decline. Corporates come next, with a quarter of the population rooting for them. Environmental organisations may need to do a lot of rethinking if the Teri study is anything to go by — only 4 per cent believe in their abilities.
The survey, carried out by the New Delhi-headquartered The Energy Research Institute (TERI) to capture public attitudes and perceptions towards the environment, found that in Bangalore most people perceived the quality of the environment to have deteriorated over the last five years, except for surface water and drinking water quality and availability, which have been perceived to have become better over this period of time .
The majority felt that there has been no change in the quality of air in the city. Moreover, looking at the gender-differentiated responses, the survey found that for all dimensions of the environment, except that of waste and waste management, a higher percentage of women perceived deterioration in environmental quality compared to men. Also, there were differences seen in the responses across different types of localities.
The shocker, however, came in the section on climate change. A little more than a third of the people believed that there is nothing called climate change. If TERI Director General RK Pachauri’s assertion that “the survey is an accurate indicator of current attitudes and values” is any yardstick, environmentalists will be worried about Bangloreans.
There can be other worries too, especially in the environment vs development front. On the balance between environment and development in a developing country like India, 22 per cent of the respondents felt that the government should prioritise development, whereas 19 per cent indicated that the government should prioritise environmental protection.
Nevertheless, the survey indicated that surface water quality and availability (50 per cent), and drinking water quality and availability (68 per cent) has become better over the last five years, while the following have worsened over the same period of time: waste and waste management (53 per cent); ground water availability (77 per cent), tree cover/green cover (47 per cent), and number of birds and/or animal species in the city (51 per cent).
Forty six per cent of the respondents felt that there has been no change in the quality of air in the city. Respondents felt that, while policies existed, they were either inadequate or lacked proper implementation for climate change (50 per cent), forest conservation (65 per cent), and waste management (80 per cent). However, respondents felt that policies for water availability (50 per cent) and water pollution (60 per cent) existed and were well implemented.
The survey revealed that 39 per centof the respondents considered factories in and around the city, and transport sector (32 per cent) to be the major contributors of air pollution. Thirty one per cent of the respondents perceived air pollution to be a cause of respiratory and skin diseases, while 39 per cent perceived it to be only one of the major contributing factors.
The respondents identified the following as the reasons for water wastage: leakage from taps and faucets (38 per cent), leakage during distribution to households (25 per cent) and over-use of water by consumers (17 per cent).
But few are willing to pay: water is still a birthright. With regard to the payment for water supply, seventy four per cent did not support the idea of paying the actual cost of water supply and preferred continuation of subsidised water prices. However, nearly everyone (99 per cent) felt they should pay their water bill on the basis of metered-consumption.
Bangloreans are not quite into cutting trees, but not too many plant saplings either. The survey showed that 80 per cent of the people have never been involved in the chopping of a tree. Eightyeight per cent indicated that they visit the park once a week, while 12 per cent go more than once a month. Though 19 per cent of the population is involved in planting a tree once a year, a majority of 45 per cent of the respondents have never planted a tree.
The perception about garbage is probably along expected lines. Some 69 per cent felt that improper solid waste management is causing severe impact on health, while less than 10 per cent considered the impact to be moderate or low. According to the survey, the following should be responsible for collecting waste from households: public entities (44 per cent), private entities (30 per cent), and public private partnerships (24 per cent). The collection of garbage/waste from households is extremely important in managing the waste.
Yet, most are still not willing to take it upon themselves. The survey revealed that 44 per cent were simply not willing to segregate waste, while 11 per cent of the respondents showed high willingness to do so. The reasons for not being willing to segregate waste were: separating the waste is a cumbersome task (34 per cent), need more space to keep the two separate bins (31 per cent), segregation is the responsibility of the local authority (23 per cent). However, the reasons for willingness to segregate waste were: it is good for the environment (50 per cent) and the biodegradable wastes can be used to make compost (27 per cent).
