As B'luru temp dips, activists warn of pollution, congestion

Bengaluru: With the monsoon season behind it, Bengaluru is experiencing a chilly November with temperatures in mornings going down to around 18 degrees Celsius and in the evenings to around 20 degrees. The progression to wards winter has also dried up the air with the average humidity in the month being around 77%.

This year’s November has certainly felt different to previous years. The Indian Meteorological Department’s Latha Sridhar said that while temperatures have dipped in recent days, there is currently no cold wave in Bengaluru. “There was a dip in temperatures, especially in places near Bidar. For a cold wave to happen, there needs to be a dip of 10 degrees for 2 consecutive days. The temperatures right now are normal.” She said.

She also could not conclusively tell whether the temperatures this November are being affected by climate change as that would require looking into and comparing with other decades of temperature data. However, environmentalists were concerned about the state of the city’s fluctuations in temperatures.

Conservationist Vijaya Nishant said “This year the temperature was very high and drizzling was happening. The transitions after the rains used to happen smoothly but that has not happened this year, actually. The cold is also hitting very hard, that too in the beginning only. Initially it will lift and then peak, but this year has poured and poured. These things are very evident that these are the changes that are happening.”

Similarly, environmentalist Vinod Jacob said that the acceleration of weather changes is not normal, “The recent pre-loading, because of the various micro-climate changes that are happening, I think is happening because the seasons are fast forwarding, and that is actually changing the setup of the weather.” He said.

With the city rapidly developing, concretizing more land area and green cover reducing year by year, the only solution is conservation and rejuvenation of natural resources, environmentalists said. Accurate AQI readings as well as decongesting the city through urban planning were put forward by both Nishant and Jacob.

“The urban planning and decongesting the area should be the focus. If you see in Delhi, they are not able to breathe, actually. The days of jobs, development are all gone, the major thing is the health and the people who get into the public domain are not looking at that aspect and that is very bad management from our democratic institutions.” Nishant said.

Vinod Jacob also said that the temperatures also affect the health and well-being of citizens, especially the elderly, the home less and children. “The government has to see to it that the shelters are all working fine and more people can be accommodated because many homeless people can’t take in this weather.” He said.