A City at the Crossroads
When Kempe Gowda I, the famous ruler of the Vijayanagara Empire and the founder of Bengaluru, first built a fort here, the place was a jungle with diverse wildlife. While the human population in the city has grown to over 12 million spread across 740 square kilometres today, up from 6 million a few decades ago, the animal density has sharply dropped alongside. Are we keeping an eye out for the changes that have been going on in the ecological environment of our city? Have you ever noticed the decline in the number of sparrows in Bengaluru or the arbitrary changes in its climate? Can we imagine our city without birds adorning its skies, or their chirping in the parks, or chasing squirrels in the trees around? Who wouldn’t like to stroll in a park listening to the humming of birds? Our understanding, built over the years, has enabled us to recognize that any growing city’s ecological sustainability is deeply connected to the state of its urban wildlife population, present in not only its...