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An important aspect often forgotten in planning of types isour environment

-Anonymous

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URBAN PLANNING

Current Status

Problems

Impacts

Trends

Projections

Action Plan

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Initiatives of the Government

Some of the initiatives taken in urban planning in the stateare noteworthy, since these incorporate environmentaldimensions to urban growth and the quality of life. Four suchnoteworthy initiatives are listed here:

Plans to use Remote Sensing Maps in urban planning.Currently such maps are being developed for a few majorcities, including Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore.The new Building Bye-laws (2003) of the BangaloreMahanagara Palike, have provided guidelines for exterioropen space, solar water heating and parking based ondifferent characteristics (e.g. width and depth of site) ofbuildings whether residential, commercial or public.The Bangalore Development Authority, in particular, hasbeen developing urban infrastructure and providing sites.Substantial increase in area under the guidelines forparks and open spaces. Fifteen percent of total plan areais now to be incorporated as parks / green areas.For the first time, heritage buildings have been definedin the amendment made in February 2004 to theKarnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1964.The state government has constituted a Park Authorityto oversee the maintenance and development ofLalbagh, Cubbon Park and Freedom Park.

Legislations on urban planning

The Town Planning Department is responsible for urbanplanning and the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act1961 forms the comprehensive legal framework for urbanplanning of the state. The Act’s statement of objectivesspecifies that “Physical planning with co-ordinated effort on alarge scale is necessary if the people are to live in a better,healthier and happier environment”. The statement alsoincludes the responsibility:

To preserve and improve existing recreational facilities andother amenities contributing towards balanced use of land.To direct the future growth of populated areas in the statewith a view to ensuring desirable standards ofenvironmental health and hygiene and creating facilitiesfor the orderly growth of industries and commerce, thereby promoting general standards of living in the state.

Other legislations on urban planningKarnataka Municipalities Act, 1964Karnataka Slum Clearance Area Act, 1974Bangalore Development Authority Act, 1976Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development AuthorityAct, 1985Karnataka Urban Development Authorities Act, 1987

CURRENT STATUS

Karnataka has a good tradition in urban planning butimportant aspects of the environment have not beenincorporated as key elements in the legislations pertainingto urban planning. Ideally, urban planning should followthe regional planning (i.e. economic and physical planning)exercise. In particular, the ‘Statement of Object andReasons’ of the Karnataka Town and Country PlanningAct, 1961, clearly indicates that “Physical planning has toprecede economic planning as otherwise cities, towns andvillages in our country will grow to unmanageable sizeswithout proper planning resulting in unhealthysurroundings”. vbIn recent years, however, regionalplanning has not been conducted for the state.

The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act 1961makes provision for the preparation of two types of plans.An interim plan called Outline Development Plan (section12 of the Act) in the first instance, followed by a detailedComprehensive Development Plan (section 21 of the Act).The Karnataka Planning Authority Rules, 1965(subsequently amended in 1976, 1977, 1980, 1986 and1988) lists out the details of reports to be prepared andsurveys to be carried out for a ComprehensiveDevelopment Plan in Rules 41 and 42.

It is noteworthy that at no stage of planning isenvironmental assessment or estimation of likelyenvironmental damages and mitigation methods a part ofthe long term urban planning. Such a system requires adetailed understanding and study of hydrologicalcharacteristics of the region, air circulation patterns, studyof ecological characteristics, etc. Similarly at the time ofthe preparation of town planning schemes, sometimesinvolving huge residential development, Environmentalimpact assessment is not prepared even on an informalbasis if not according to the rigour of Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests recommendations. The mainreasons probably are the absence of legal requirements /guidelines and absence of trained manpower/ andfacilities. The Urban Development Department/ PlanningAuthorities prepare the schemes based on planningstandards including accommodation, accessibility,affordability, safety, density standards, etc. Thus there is

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competitive advantages of regions to attract investment,and regional migration trends based on hierarchy ofsettlements. As investment potential of an area is notcomprehensively assessed, and only a land allocation anduse prescription is made, the actual growth rarely followsthe original assumptions and infringements of regulationsare common.

Development plans and coverage of urban population

Source: Town Planning Department, December 2002.‘Total’ includes two areas that are not towns, viz., Bangalore Mysore InfrastructureCorridor and Bangalore International Airport area.

Urban planning in Karnataka

The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 providesfor a three-tier system of urban planning. This includes theOutline Development Plan for the local planning area which isprepared first. Outline Development Plan broadly indicates theproposed zoning of land use for residential, commercial,industrial, recreational, educational and other public purposes,proposed circulation pattern and a set of zoning regulations.Then the Comprehensive Development Plan is preparedindicating therein the comprehensive zoning of land usetogether with zoning regulations, complete street pattern,improvements to existing road patterns, reservation of areasfor public purpose such as parks, playgrounds and otherrecreational uses, public buildings, institutions, areas forhousing, etc. Finally, the town planning schemes are preparedfor the planning area for implementation of the proposals ofComprehensive Development Plan. This is a time consumingprocess which takes nearly 20 years.

The Karnataka State Legislature has passed an amendmentto the above mentioned Act in February 2004 to do away withComprehensive Development Plan and Outline DevelopmentPlan. The amended provision prescribes preparation MasterPlan by all the Planning Authorities in one stage. Added to thisthere is provision for Interim Master Plan pending preparationof the Master Plan for regulating land use pattern and roadpattern. Further there is a time limit of one year for preparationof Master Plan. Another very important feature is that it ismandatory to revise the Master Plan once in every ten years.

some effort to create a good urban environment andoptimum use of valuable agricultural land, in lieu of thelegal environmental guidelines.

PROBLEMS

Environmental problems associated with urban planningcan be broadly classified under two categories, namely,strategic planning and urban management. Theenvironmental problems associated with urban growth andmanagement include urban sprawl, damage due toconstruction activities (in planned versus unplannedsettlements), threat to the cultural heritage, andinadequacies in the provision of basic environmentalamenities in the urban areas (underground drainage,waste water treatment facilities and solid waste disposalsites).

The two major plans prepared for urban planning, namelyOutline Development Plan and ComprehensiveDevelopment Plan, do not have explicit environmentalcomponents nor an environmental master plan. Althoughthere are guidelines on the proportion of land to be usedfor various purposes like residential, parks and openspaces, etc., environmental planning per se is missing. Aproblem map, though prepared, as a part of thedevelopment plan, explicit environmental components arenot addressed. But it considers items such as theavailability and use of land (factors like slums, marshylands and low-lying areas are included) rather than all theenvironmental components. A study map covering theclimatological aspects like predominant winddirection, rainfall and temperature variationis prepared, and for proposed industrialareas consideration of treatment of industrialwastes/ effluent and nearby natural lakesand reservoirs, etc. are included; but thestudy maps does not cover all ecologicalcharacteristics.

The physical Comprehensive DevelopmentPlan is based on conventional time seriespopulation projection, and is not a part ofthe regional plan exercise. Thus theComprehensive Development Plan does notconsider the resource base, impact of

Type of Plan No. of towns

Total 2001 population

% of state urban

populationRevised Comprehensive Development Plan Bangalore 1 5,686,844 32

Revised Comprehensive Development Plan 7 2,754,010 15

Comprehensive Development Plan 21 3,621,106 20

Outline Development Plan 48 3,046,559 17 Outline Development Plan ongoing 28 1,438,510 8

Total 105 16,547,029 92

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The whole planning process is affected due to lack of basemaps, since up-to-date base maps of urban areas coveringthe local planning area are not available. Moreover, theavailable base maps for the conurbation areas do not havethe desired details or accuracy required for urban planning.

Presently base maps for the conurbation area are beingprepared by the traditional civil engineering surveymethods. However, remote sensing maps are beingdeveloped for the three cities of Bangalore, Mysore andMangalore, where the aerial surveys have been conductedbut the maps are awaited by the Town PlanningDepartment from the National Remote Sensing Agency,Hyderabad.

The pressure of growing urban population results indemand for additional land, which may result in using upagricultural land on the periphery of urban areas. Due tothis, the average trip distances will increase, leading tomore pressure on the city centre and associated problemsof infrastructure will increase in the environs of city centre.The local authorities, which are financially constrained,are unable to take up redevelopment schemes in the corearea or allow high-density areas with adequate road widthand urban services.

Planning with high-density areas, however, also dependson social aspects and cannot be adopted in all categoriesof towns. During the preparation of the OutlineDevelopment Plan and Comprehensive Development Planthe Town Planning Department does provide for high-density areas in a few locations of a city.

The high pressure on land is attributable to planned low-density sprawl. As a policy guideline, 125 persons perhectare is used as a planning criterion in Karnataka forassessment of land requirement irrespective of the citysize. This is based on the Urban Development PlanningFormulation and Implementation Guidelines 1996 from theMinistry of Urban Affairs, which recommends 80 to 125persons per hectare for different types of cities. Thus evenfor a fast growing city like Bangalore this low densityguideline of 125 persons per hectare is adopted.

As a guideline, 50 percent of urban land use is reserved

for residential purposes, and as a characteristic almosthalf the urban households in Karnataka live in independenthouses. This preference for low density housing cannotbe sustained given the trend in population growth in thecities.

The deficiency in affordable housing makes theeconomically poorer sections of the population move tothe periphery of the cities. Certain sections of the migratoryurban population do not like to live in the periphery of thecity and seek accommodation nearer to city centres/workplaces. This results in higher density (but low rise)settlements and/or conversion of land uses like waterbodies, borders of roads and railway lines and open spacesinto housing activities. The change in the land use fromgreen belt associated activities to urban activities on theperiphery of the city then affects the hydrologicalcharacteristics and hence the environment of the urbanareas.

With population migrating to urban settlements in searchof improved economic levels, the first pressure is onhousing leading to the high land costs or prevailing highrents in urban areas thus leading to illegal occupancy ofvacant / public land through huts which over a period oftime develops into a slum. Such housing does not haveany basic amenity like light, water or toilet facilities andconsequently affects environment in the immediatesurroundings. Migration into urban Karnataka had beenmost significant in the district of Bangalore (accountingfor 26.2 percent of total urban migration in the state),followed by Dharwad (9.6 percent),) Belgaum (7.5 percent)and Mysore (6.3 percent) as per the Census 1991 data

The high land costs and inability of planning authorities toprovide adequate land at cheap prices result in theformation of unplanned /illegal layouts. Agricultural landzoned for residential land use in the master plans are oftensubdivided into plots and sold by owners withoutpermission from the concerned planning authorities(violating Section 95 of Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964and Section 17 of the Town and Country Planning Act,1961 – permission for conversion from agriculture to non-agriculture and approval of layouts). In case, the areafalls under an Urban Development Authority, then a third

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legislation is violated in the process of illegal land use,namely Section 32 of the Karnataka Urban DevelopmentAuthorities Act, 1987. Thus three pieces of legislationtypically get violated in the growth of illegal layouts.

The purchaser of the agricultural land typically puts up astructure and begins residing in it. The illegal layoutstypically do not have adequate open spaces, access roadswill be too narrow and provision for water supply or sewagesystem or for garbage collection will be absent. No taxesare levied or paid. Such sites called as ‘revenue sites’ area common phenomenon in urban areas. The ownershipof land is legal in this case, the usage many times correct,but change of land use is illegal and layout formation andconstruction of houses illegal.

Absence of provision of water and sewage system by thestate (due to illegal nature of these sites and construction)forces people to draw usage of ground water and use soakpits for toilet activities, thus affecting the environment. Ithas been observed that the users of revenue sites are notthe fresh migrants to urban areas but people who havestayed in urban areas and have saved certain amount ofmoney and want to improve their living conditions.

Migration to urban areas in Karnataka bydistrict, 1991 (in ‘000)

Source: Karnataka Census 1991 (Census 2001 data on migrationis not available), and authors’ calculation.Note: The data pertains to population, both rural and urban, thatmigrated to urban centres in Karnataka.

Muni Madara Oni, Bijapur

Before

AfterDevelopment

Tippunagar, Shimoga

Slum development programmes

District Total Migration

% share in state total

Bangalore 1,198 26 Bangalore Rural 69 2 Belgaum 345 8 Bellary 181 4 Bidar 68 2 Bijapur 246 5 Chikkamagalur 74 2 Chitradurga 214 5 Dakshina Kannada 243 5 Dharwad 441 10 Gulbarga 171 4 Hassan 124 3 Kodagu 40 1 Kolar 163 4 Mandya 106 2 Mysore 290 6 Raichur 134 3 Shimoga 212 5 Tumkur 159 4 Uttara Kannada 97 2 Total 4,573 100

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Map showing the growth of Bangalore city from the year 1537 to 2001

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The current shortage in housing of the urban populationis acute, with households crowded in insufficient spacewithin their homes and shortage of affordable housing hasalso led to increase in slums. According to the Census2001 data on housing, by far the largest number ofhouseholds living in one room or two roomaccommodations in Karnataka was in the district ofBangalore. Planning and providing adequate housing tothe growing urban population of the state with conventionalmaterials, preference for owning single family independentdwelling in the state have significant environmental impact.The conventional use of timber for doors and windowsrather than plastic, glass and steel, and the lack ofinformation on low cost and durable housing using newmaterials (with acceptable architectural styles based onlocal preference) to the masses further aggravates theproblem.

The slum population in Karnataka has been growing at ahigh rate and the living conditions in slums are poorespecially in terms of access to basic services. In termsof distribution of slum population across the state, thehighest proportion is found in Bangalore City.

The overall living conditions in slums in North Karnatakaare worse than in the slums of South Karnataka. Twosurveys conducted in slums indicate the deficiencies inthe provision of basic infrastructural and environmentalservices in slums in Karnataka. The Government ofKarnataka report on the evaluation of the programme ofEnvironmental Improvement of Urban Slums covered 23slums, 14 of which were from Bangalore and 9 in Hubli-Dharwad.

According to the report, of the fourteen slums in theBangalore urban and rural districts, two slums are fullycovered with water supply i.e. for every 150 persons onetap is provided. In the rest of the slums water supply ispartial. Of the nine slums in Hubli-Dhrwad, only five arefully covered with water supply. Whether these taps hadrestricted hours during which water is supplied is not clear.Street lights at the rate of one pole for every 30 meterswas provided in nine slums in Bangalore and urbandistricts and for five in Hubli-Dharwad district.

The Schedule III of the Municipal Solid Waste Rules, 2000,specifies that the selection of landfill sites (with a life of20-25 years) shall be based on examination ofenvironmental issues. Also, the Department of UrbanDevelopment is to co-ordinate with the concernedorganisations for obtaining the necessary approvals andclearances. The landfill site has to be away from habitationclusters, forest areas, water bodies, monuments, NationalParks, Wetlands and places of important cultural, historicalor religious interest. Moreover, as per the Rules “a bufferzone of no-development shall be maintained around landfillsite and shall be incorporated in the Town PlanningDepartment’s land-use plans” (Schedule III.9).

There exists severe deficiency in the provision of basicurban infrastructure in terms of underground drainage andwastewater collection and treatment which pose severeenvironmental and health problems. This problem canbe linked to the lack of planning in new residential layoutsin urban Karnataka that has led to human settlementswithout proper sewerage system.

Most of the wastewater generated (by volume) comes fromthe domestic sector which is about 97 percent in Class Icities and 100 percent in Class II cities. There is deficit inthe collection of sewage (due to incomplete provision ofdrainage network) in cities, as well as in the treatmentcapacity of the wastewater collected. As per the report ofthe high power committee for redressal of regionalimbalances, 2002, the underground drainage facilities

Houses constructed by various agencies from2000-01 to Aug 2003

Agencies NumbersRajiv Gandhi Rural Housing Corporation Limited 542,062

Grameen Awas Yojana - Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department

120,610

Pradhan Mantri Grameen Yojana - Grameen Awas Yojana -Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department

7,448

Matsya Ashraya - Fisheries Department 4,685 Karnataka Slum Clearance Board 21,748 Karnataka Housing Board 187 Total 696,740

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have been provided by Karnataka Urban Water Supplyand Drainage Board in 36 cities, while work is in progressin 19 other towns, 162 towns are not covered under thedrainage system as yet.

In Bangalore, the sewerage system is sometimes notconnected to trunk sewers (termed “missing link”) ofBangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, andmunicipal effluents get into natural drains leading to tanks

and lakes. This has led to the increasing deterioration ofwater quality of the natural lakes and tanks in the urbancentres. Some other cities in the state like Hubli-Dharwad,Belgaum, Davanagere do not even have a provision fortreatment plant.

Lakes and tanks support a fragile ecosystem, and helprecharge the ground water table besides providing surfacewater for a variety of uses including nature recreational

View of the restored Vengiahana kere in Bangalore

Satellite imagery showing three major lake valley systems of Bangalore

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sites within cities. Lakes and tanks in andaround the cities have been polluted withdomestic sewage, dumping of garbage,industrial effluents, and immersion of idols.This negligence of the natural drainagesystem while planning new layouts isanother important cause behind theimproper drainage abusing the tanks andlakes of the state. The shortage of housingand availability of dried up lakes in primespots of urban areas and poor policing ofunauthorized occupancy have led tohousing activity in tank beds.

In South Karnataka the problem isaggravated by the fact that most of thetanks are chain tanks such that the sewagelet into one tank spills over to the othertanks. Sewage flows into small tanks,typically resulting in choking of tanks andare consequently prime areas ofacquisition for construction purposes sometimes legally and sometimes illegally. Historical tanks suchas Kempambudhi in Bangalore, Dalvai, Doddakere andJivanrayanakatte in Mysore, Doddakere in Tumkur, areall examples to this.

In some cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Tumkur andChitradurga, the natural drainage connecting several tankshas been neglected and roads and other structures havebeen built across the natural drainage without taking intoconsideration the drainage capacity and its potentialcontribution. Consequently, city streets are flooded duringthe monsoon.

Another problem associated with urban areas in the stateis the lack of adequate lung space in terms of parks andopen spaces. In smaller towns this problem appears tobe acute, as local bodies lack the financial capability tomanage these spaces. Further, it can be stated that in thebigger cities the open spaces are used as dumping sitesor and encroached upon by service providingorganisations or religious organisations. The general lackof appreciation of the importance of open spaces is a verycommon scenario in all urban areas.

Commercial Street in Bangalore

Old building ofVictoria hospital

Some instances of lakes and tanks lost with urbandevelopment

Glimpses of vintage Bangalore

City Urban structure Former lake/ tank

Football stadium Shoolay lakeHockey stadium Akkithimmanhalli lakeSports stadium Sampangi lakeCity bus stand Dharmanbudhi lakeKGA Golf Course Challaghatta lakeResidential layout & Sports Complex Koramangala lake

Space department Nagashettihalli lakeAmbedkar Medical college Kadugondanahalli lake

BDA layout Domlur lakeResidential layout Millers lakeResidential layout Subhashnagar lakeResidential layout Kurubarahalli lakeResidential layout Kodihalli lakeResidential layout Sinivaigalu lakeResidential layout Marenahalli lake

Playground, Bus stand Shivanahalli lake

Hassan Bus stand TankExhibition Ground Dhoddakere TankOpen Space Subrayanakere lake

Mysore

Bangalore

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The norm for parks and open spaces is 15 percent of totalland use, but not only one major town Rabakavi-Banahatti,Bagalkot or city in Karnataka meets this criterion in existingland use at the time plans were prepared! The four townsof Gokak (Belgaum), Sindagi (Bijapur), Dharwad(Dharwad) and Malavalli (Mandya) have double-digitproportion of the land use as parks and open spaces, at14.9 percent, 11.91 percent, 12.8 percent and 10.48percent respectively. These towns also have more thanone hectare of parks/ open space per 1000 population.Among the larger cities, only Dharwad falls in this category,with 1.3 hectare/1000 population.

It is pertinent to note here that that planning interventionin the existing human settlements of the state for has beenundertaken only during the past 2 to 3 decades, while thesesettlements have grown over a much longer period. Thus,planning standards are unlikely to hold for these olderexisting urban settlements and only can be useful in theplanning of new townships.

Private or illegal housing colonies as well as constructionof urban structures in the site areas have threatened sitesof historical and cultural heritage in Karnataka.

The Archaeological Survey of India has been maintainingthe monuments at Hampi after they were declared as

protected in the year 1921. In November 1986, the WorldHeritage Committee of United Nations Education, Socialand Cultural Organisation declared the group ofmonuments at Hampi as a world heritage site! In 1999,when the review of the United Nations Education, Socialand Cultural Organisation report on the Hampi monumentsat the World Heritage Committee session, it was observedthat two large scale two way bridges for vehicular trafficand the second footbridge within the protected areas werethreatening the integrity of the heritage site. Subsequently,the Hampi site was declared as World Heritage in Danger.The constructions of two bridges were to be halted, andcorrective measures undertaken to remove the threatsfacing the site and no further unplanned development wereto be allowed in the Hampi area.

A taskforce constituted by the Government of Karnatakato devise long-term measures to save the Hampi siterecommended relocation of the two bridges. Theconstructions of the two bridges were stopped. A largenumber of unauthorised encroachments in the Hampi site(about 150 near Krishna Temple, Uddanavaraha, Bhadra,Chandikeswara and Pattabhirama Temples) wereremoved. More recently in March 2003, the legislative

Green spaces in Bangalore city

The largest land use under the category of ‘park and openspace’ area among all the cities in the state can be found inBangalore (2132.16 hectares). In Bangalore the area underparks and open space constitutes about 7.5 percent of totalland use, implying the availability of 0.52 hectares per 1000population. A study on Bangalore City noted that there are370 parks and public gardens. Unfortunately, most of theseare poorly maintained. The problem of irregular clearing ofgarbage seems most predominant (in about 270 parks/gardens), besides the problems of public nuisance (in 97)and illegal parking (in 35) in these open green spaces. On anaverage, there is a park for every 16,220 residents of the city,but this seems reasonable. The topographical distribution ofthese parks/ open spaces is highly uneven since most of theparks are concentrated in certain localities within the city.

“Due to rapid urbanization many old tiled buildings, bungalowswith their gardens and a variety of large flowering and fruitingtrees, have been lost. These have given way to a steadyaddition of tall concrete structures and the resultant loss ofprivate open spaces, with their rich vegetation and fauna.”.

Under the environmental legislation of The Environment (Sitingfor Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999, new units of pollutingindustries are not allowed to be set up within 7 km peripheryof the important archaeological monuments including are tenfrom the state of Karnataka. This legislation provides forprotection of heritage sites from industrial pollution.

Monuments in Karnataka specified in Environment(Siting for Industrial Projects) Rules, 1999

Locality District Name of Monument

Aihole Bagalkot Durga Temple Complex

Badami Bagalkot Jain and Vishnu Caves

Bangalore Bangalore Tipu Sultan PalaceBijapur Bijapur Gol GumbazBijapur Bijapur Ibrahim RouzeChitadurga Chitradurga Fortress and temples

on the hillHampi Bellary Group of TemplesPattadakal Bagalkot Group of TemplesSomnathpura Mysore Sri Kesava TempleSrirangapatna Mysore Daria Daulat Bagh

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assembly passed the bill entitled The Hampi WorldHeritage Area Management Authority Bill, 2002.

Encroachments of illegally constructed houses in old fortsare also evident in Srirangapatna, Bijapur, Chitradurga,Gulbarga, and Raichur. Sometimes stones from the fortsare removed for construction purposes. In Raichur, thelocation of a bus stand within the fort area has alsocontributed to the fort’s degeneration. Besides illegalconstruction within cultural sites, urban waste is alsoopenly dumped in and around these sites, degrading theenvirons. In Bijapur, the moat around the fort evenreceives the sewerage of the town habitation.

CAUSES

The rapid growth in urban population in the state has beendriven by both push and pull factors. The absence of basicamenities/ facilit ies and the lack of employmentopportunities in rural areas act as push factors driving awaythe population from rural areas as well as small urbansettlements. On the other hand, the perceived presenceof such facilities in larger urban settlements acts as thepull factor leading to the migration of rural population intothe urban areas.

The inadequate co-ordination between variousdepartments, lack of financial and technical resources(coupled with the inability of some users to pay even theminimum user charges to maintain the system) are thereasons behind the deficit in the provision of basic services.The implementation of 74th constitution amendment of1992 was expected to improve the functioning of the urbanlocal bodies since it provides autonomy to the urban localbodies in planning and management, and also supportsindependent financing options to urban local bodies.

The Comprehensive Development Plan preparedaccording to the Town and Country Planning Act does notmandate an Environmental management plan as a legalrequirement, nor are Environmental impact assessmentsprepared for large-scale residential layouts or major cityextensions, as it is not a legal mandate. Moreover, theTown and Country Planning Department and UrbanDevelopment Authorities and Planning Authorities are

short staffed and do not have specialists in environmentalengineering/planning in their staff.

The general norm used in the Town Planning Departmentassumes a requirement of about 125 persons per hectareas the gross density for the calculation of conurbation.Moreover the tedious legal and administrative proceduresfor land acquisition and the poor financial status hasdissuaded Urban Development Authorities with theexception of Bangalore in acquiring land and developingnew layouts and carrying out other development alactivities.

One of the most important causes is the non-availabilityof affordable housing sites or houses (physical constraint).Second is the financial constraint of urban households,which pushes them to take non-residential plots forhousing construction, or live in poor-quality houses or evenslums, as the case may be. Since urban land is relativelyexpensive for the lower and middle-income groups,agricultural sites are built on without authorisation, whilethose below the poverty line move into slums.

The problem of revenue sites has assumed vastproportions on the periphery of Bangalore, and it isestimated that the area under revenue sites in theBangalore Metropolitan area is 3000 to 45000 squarekilometers, i.e. 5 to 7 times the urban agglomeration areacovered by the 1991 Census. In effect, there is a parallelillegal city co-existing with the legal city.

The improper underground drainage has been caused byincomplete construction of the sewerage system, whichshould have been considered as a priority issue in urbaninfrastructure. Illegal settlements are not provided thedrainage facility, the sewerage system is sometimes notconnected to the trunk sewers and the untreated effluentscontaminate the surface water (in lakes and tanks) as wellas ground water. Finally the deliberate use of tanks bythe planning authorities/urban local bodies for theconstruction of other urban structures has resulted in thepermanent loss of some of the fresh water tanks.

Historical growth of the city ignored the significancemaintaining parks and open spaces. Thus, the older parts

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of the city of Bangalore are completely built up and it isunlikely that land can be released for parks/open spaces.In comparison, the new extensions of a major city likeBangalore has more designated space for parks and greenareas. A second cause of the lack of parks and openspace is the inability of the development authorities toacquire and maintain such space due to their financialconstraint.

IMPACTS

The environmental impacts of the problems associatedwith urban planning and growth are listed below:• ground water contamination due to soak pits and

improper drainage system near open wells,• decrease in groundwater recharge due to increasing

surface runoff due to paved areas,• polluting surface water bodies like tanks by the letting

sewage into the lakes,• health problems due to uncollected garbage strewn

around,

• health problems due to crowding of families in one-room or two-room houses,

• increase in temperatures due to radiation frombuildings and paved roads (heat islands), andinadequate tree cover to counter this rise intemperature. Air circulation is also reduced due tothe dense residential development and loss ofvegetation/tree cover,

Urbanization has been accompanied by disruption andsometimes destruction of fragile ecosystems, including

Change in biodiversity with urbanisation

The growth of concrete structures in a city like Bangalore hasoften taken place in areas that formerly held green cover orlakes and tanks. Consequently some bird species like theLesser Florican, Great Indian Bustard, Sandgrouse andothers, have been lost, while others like the Babblers, residentShrikes, Red headed Merlin, Red Starts and Sparrows, havebeen driven out of the city environs. The loss of these birdshas been replaced by wetland bird species (addition of marshhabitats) and those that adapt to urban structures well, likethe Blue Rock Pigeons.

Urban Green Belt in Karnataka

A Green Belt is land area predominantly for agricultural use, meant to check the haphazard and uncontrolled growth of the cityas well as to prevent neighbouring town/ settlements from merging into one another. Moreover, the Green Belt is also supposedto serve as local food production area and also function as a sink for air pollution generated from urban activities (industries,vehicles). I.e. the concept of a Green Belt is meant to provide for healthy environmental conditions to a city. The main legislationfor urban planning in Karnataka, namely the Town and Country Planning Act 1961, however, does not have any provision toclassify land as Green Belt in the Outline Development Plan or Comprehensive Development Plan. The Department hassuggested a set of new guidelines to identify certain lands within a Local Planning Area to declare it as Green Belt under theKarnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, such that these lands can be permanently maintained as open space in and around anurban area. The Town and Country Planning Act does provide for identification of lands to be used as parks/ open spaces andearmarking certain lands (beyond conurbation limit but within the Local Planning Area) as agricultural zone, and within theagricultural zone certain areas can be further notified as Green Belt (under the Land Revenue Act). The Town PlanningDepartment has so far notified green belts for only three cities of Bangalore, Bidar and Mandya.

The task of delineation of the limits of the green belt is difficult, since it presupposes the determination of the size and growthrates of a city which depend upon several factors beyond the control of the city planner and the city administrator (like regionaland national economic growth rates). Since urban development and growth is a dynamic phenomenon, typically the growth ofa city/ town cannot be confined to a notified area. For instance, in case of Bangalore under the 1972 Outline Development Planthe planning area was 500 square kilometers (220square kilometers conurbation and 280 square kilometers agriculturalzone), and in the 1984 Comprehensive Development Plan the planning area was increased to 1279 square kilometers (439square kilometers conurbation and 840 square kilometers agricultural zone), but in 1995 the demarcation for conurbation and“green belt” was revised to 597 square kilometers and 682 square kilometers to accommodate the growth of the city.

Encroachments in the green belt are also common as rural tracts urbanise. Some of the peripheral expansion is illegal andunauthorised, and the 1999 Task Force Report on the Bangalore Green Belt, documented of such construction and layoutsfound in the Bangalore Green Belt area. Given the difficulty in managing an urban green belt, experts have suggested that thegreen belt should be developed with proper parks, open spaces, or forestry, rather than allowing irregular cultivation or leavingbarren areas.

Source: Town Planning Department and Task Force Report on the Bangalore Green Belt, 1999.

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water bodies and as surface water bodies and groundwatertables decline, the green cover with its accompanying lifesupport system is adversely affected.

The construction of residential and non-residentialbuildings (schools, hospitals) and developmental activityof constructing access roads and infrastructure provisioncreate increased demand on items like cement, steel,bricks and stone, timber, etc. Moreover, the environmentalpressures while such construction is going on are in termsof vehicle movements, dust, water requirement,contamination, noise etc. Places where constructionworkers stay and the environs in that region also getsaffected temporarily. Once the construction is over andnormal land use activities start, the requirements andwaste generated by this population puts newenvironmental pressures. These problems have beenobserved more recently in the city of Bangalore, wheredebris from construction work has increased particulateair pollution, and constricted road space causes trafficcongestion.The increased movements of heavy vehicles carryingconstruction material like trucks and lorries, and concretemixtures during the peak hours have also caused trafficsnarls, eg. along southern part of ring road, BannerghattaRoad, and Airport Road, where heightened constructionactivity has taken place.

TRENDS

Urban planning should specifically address the issues ofpressure on natural resources and increases pollution andwastes while making physical plans. The definition of urbanarea as per the Census, 2001 includes all places with a

Urban Population by classification of Towns in Karnataka, 2001 and theprojections for 2011

municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notifiedtown area committee, etc. and all other places which havea minimum population of 5000, at least 75 per cent ofmale main workers engaged in non-agricultural pursuits;and a density of population of at least 400 persons persquare kilometere qualify to be termed as urban areas.Thus, one may find an anomaly of small habitations with5000 population being considered as urban areas, whilehabitats having large population of sometimes 20000 to30000 persons not being considered in this report.

During 1991-2001, the population growth in urbanKarnataka has been higher than that in the rural areas.The urban population increased by 40,12,070, muchhigher than the rural population increase of 37,44,687during the said period. The ratio of urban to ruralpopulation growth in the state (1.071) is higher than thenational average (0.600). This indicates that urbanisationhas a strong foothold and the trend is towards anincreasing rate in Karnataka. Among the 27 districts inthe state, the extent of urbanisation (proportion of urbanto total district population) is highest in Bangalore Urban(88 percent), followed by Dharwad (55 percent), DakshinaKannada (38.4 percent), Mysore (36.9 percent) and Gadag(35.2 percent). In other districts the urban population isless than 35 percent.

It is noteworthy that through the last two decades,Bangalore has continued to be the most urbanised district,followed by Dharwad. Interestingly, these two districts alsohave the highest proportion of in-migration taking place.The growth pattern of towns of various classes between1991 to 2001 (in terms of the percentage decadal growth)

Urban Population

% Share of urban

Population

Urban Population

% Share of urban

PopulationI lakh or more Class I 12,043,036 67 15,792,075 70 50000 - 99999 Class II 1,726,134 10 3,002,218 13 20000 - 49999 Class-III Cities/towns 3,096,525 17 3,042,434 13 10000 - 19999 Class-IV Towns 839,021 5 624,630 3 5000 - 9999 Class-V Towns 192,477 1 195,437 1 Less than 5000 Class-VI Towns 22,665 0 17,598 0 Karnataka Urban All towns 17,919,858 100 22,674,392 100

2001 Census Data Projections for 2011

Population range Class of Town

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URBAN PLANNING

is negative for class IV, class V and class VI. On thecontrary, highest growth for the decade 1991-2001 isregistered by class II cities (69.5 percent). This is far higherthan the growth registered by class I cities (33.73 percent).In terms of the share of population, Class I cities havenearly two thirds of the total urban population. Bangaloreurban agglomeration, which consists of Bangalore City andsurrounding towns, contains 31.1 percent of Karnataka’surban population.

PROJECTIONS

Given the trend in growth of the urban population inKarnataka in the last decade, the urban population for 2011is projected at 22,674,392. The share of class I cities isexpected to go up to 69.6 percent. In particular, Bangaloreurban agglomeration population is expected to go up to7.64 million.

Assuming that the current norm of 125 persons per hectarewill continue to apply, with the urban growth projected,the land required would be nearly 40,000 hectares to caterto urbanization in the next ten years. On the other hand,Town Planning Department estimated the total localplanning area requirement as 11,500 square kilometers.

ACTION PLAN

• Modifications to the Outline Development Plan/Comprehensive Development Plan should be madeto statutorily provide land for landfill sites, sewagetreatment plant and underground drainage. The Actshould be amended in such a way that the land is notdiverted for any other purpose.

• Traffic surveys to assess the transportation modesadopted, changing needs, destination surveys needto be conducted for a five-year period to ensureadequate development of transportation corridors,economical and sustainable mass transport systems.

• The long time required for Plan preparation results incropping up of activities that are not as per the plannedactivities. This results in degraded environment.Hence the time required for the preparation ofComprehensive Development Plan should bereduced to a single stage process. The time taken for

preparation of Outline Development Plan /Comprehensive Development Plan needs to be cutdown to three years by amending the relevantprovisions of Town and Country Planning Act.

• Rainwater harvesting to be made mandatory for theapproval of building plans.

• Incentives like reduction in property tax forbuildings adopting rainwater harvestingsystems could be introduced to encouragerainwater harvesting.

• In cases of economically weaker sectionhousing schemes provided by theGovernment like Ambedkar Housingschemes, Bangalore Development Authority,Slum Board, etc., instead of individualrainwater harvesting system, communityrainwater harvesting should be provided bythe government.

• Rainwater harvesting should be mandatoryfor any new Government building and shouldbe adopted for all completed buildings in thenext one-year.

• Bangalore Water Supply and SewerageBoard should examine incentives for houses,multistory buildings with rainwater harvestingfacilities.

• The encroachments in the catchments of lakes andtanks and in the overflow zones should be identifiedand removed. Only green activities like parks that willnot interfere with the natural drainage should beallowed in these areas.

• Residential and commercial multistoreyestablishments should obtain Consent under the airand water act and get environmental clearance fromthe Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.

• Solar water heating in all Multistorey Buildings,residential and commercial, should be mademandatory for approval of building plans.

• Setting up of Environment Cells in the UrbanDevelopment Authorites and Urban Local Bodies toincorporate the environment component in planningand maintaining cities and towns.

• The Corporations should formulate EnvironmentManagement Plans for all Class I cities in Karnataka.

• Eco-corridor/Eco-villages in different climatic and

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STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT REPORT - 2003

geographical areas should be developed to function on principals of environment conservation. These will developas model sustainable eco areas for demonstration and study for the State.

• Eco-corridor/Eco-village Project for sustainable development: Few cities are to be developed on principals (all orsome) of Environment Conservation and management as model cities. This project can be taken up at Udupi andManipal on the Coast, Sakaleshpur on the foothill of the Western Ghats, Shringeri/ Koppa in Western Ghats,Basavan Bagevadi / Kushtagi in the Northern plains, Information technology corridor in Bangalore in SouthernPlateau.

• Definition of the word ‘Heritage’ to include not only historical monuments but also old trees and parks, tanks, oldwells and old buildings. These need to be identified and conserved.

• Environment Conservation and Management Plans should be prepared for places of historical interest.• Preservation of heritage sites could be designated to a state government appointed special Heritage Conservation

Committee of the Department of Ecology and Environment that would work closely with the municipal bodies andother departments.

• The existing institutions need to be strengthened to analyze environmental data, implement and enforce environmentconservation and management measures applicable to urban area by training the existing staff and providingadequate equipment.

Stages of Outline Development Plan