Idling under the Neem Tree

  Planned Land use was the key to Bangalore being so good. By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Bangalore was and remains the coolest city in the Indian Subcontinent but we are fast losing the heavenly gift. Its salubrious sub montane weather was because Bangalore has the highest point on the plains in India – on the Deccan Plateau. Located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator middle of the peninsula, equidistant from both the coasts, gifted with flat fertile soil and balmy mild weather all year round, it was cultivated by the Colonial power where the British Resident oversaw the development initiated by the colonial power and executed by the Mysore Wodeyar Kings with very able administrators like Sir M.V. Vishewariah, Sir Mirza Ismail, Dewan Madhav Rao, Dewan M.N. Krishna Rao, and their ilk. Broad streets and main roads were planned to intersect major suburban layouts, commercial hubs and so on; suburbs commercial and industrial areas were so immaculately planned. Bus ser...

Decimating Lalbagh constitutes an environmental crime and a CITES offence.   By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse The Government of Karnataka’s proposed Bangalore Tunnel Road Project seeks to de-notify and acquire land from the urban forest – Lalbagh - to create seamless road connectivity from Hebbal in the north of Bangalore to Silk Board Junction in the south east of the ‘Garden City’s’ Southeast and K R Puram in the northeast. One news report says “the₹17,000-crore infrastructure initiative is designed to decongest the city's arterial routes through an extensive underground corridor. The proposal envisions around 35 km of tunnels linking key junctions such as Hebbal, K.R. Puram, and Central Silk Board, offering signal-free, high-speed connectivity and easing the burden on surface roads”. The problem does not lie in inadequate road network. The problem lies in multiple car /private transport. Where is the need for a single person owning three to five cars? Neither is th...

                                                            Dog shelters By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse India’s Supreme Court ordered on the 7 th of November 2025 the removal of all stray dogs from public places, and further ordered that all dogs need to be captured, vaccinated, neutered as per guidelines and laws or kept in dog shelters and not released in public places . It was specified that public places included schools, hospitals, bus stands, railway stations, sports complexes, and similar public spaces. Discerning order is that vaccinated and sterilised dogs can be released in residential areas where somehow it is considered low risk. This judgement was preceded by an order that had called for extermination of all street dogs… This order was somewhat amended by its order of 19 th May 2026 ...

Urban Vet Care infra Part 2. By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse In the six weeks since my two sub adult cats left mortal Earth, I have had time to ruminate over how to correct a flawed situation. Here are my few thoughts to create vet care infrastructure so that other pet parents and pet animals / livestock do not suffer as much. Vet care is a field that ought not to be neglected in smart city governance #SDGs There is a need for publicly funded vet care infra: 1.        Veterinary health care centres very near to every residential suburb, every commercial complex, on every arterial road. 2.        Further, there is a need for a dedicated veterinary ambulance service on a dedicated road meant only for veterinary / human ambulances. This road must serve the needs of green corridor for emergency health care services for both Man and Beast. 3.        Animal shelters must be planned for ...

  Street Dog shelters By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse There were an estimated 153 lakh or 15.3 crore street dogs in India in 2025, a result of callousness by human beings who are responsible for having domesticated the wolf to a tame dog and then abandoning their wards. Human beings are responsible for ‘creating’ over 60 breeds of dogs. Dogs have been part of the domesticated animal brood within the human landscape for millions of years. But there are more street dogs than domesticated pet dogs in India, in the Subcontinent… that is a direct result of people not taking responsibility of a tamed wolf which became a domesticated dog. You will not find abandoned, orphaned street dogs in Europe Australia or in the New World. It is unique to Indian subcontinent and colonised parts of Africa and some parts of Latin America. Although I can personally testify, dogs in Colombia in South America are worshipped and deified much like India’s Holy Cow. The pet dogs are dressed up in...