Elevated corridors and climate emergency: An open reminder to the Chief Minister




Dear H D Kumaraswamy,

Do you have children or grandchildren?

The reason I ask is this: What future are we really gifting them?

Have you got any idea what the specialists at the United Nations Climate change, COP conventions are deliberating these days? Let me offer you a flavor:

They are debating which countries will take the upcoming waves of Climate Change Refugees. ie, when Maldives goes under the sea, who will receive the wave of refugees that will flee? When Bangladesh is fully under sea, who will receive those millions? These make it look distant. But then what I heard last week will terrify you: Kerala will be left with just four districts, and most Keralites will soon be climate refugees. Where to accommodate them?

If you think this is distant, think again. Every city in India has lakhs of illegal migrants from Bangladesh already. It is because of Climate Change distress, Bangladesh is already destroyed. What’s worse, its not just Bangladesh, lakhs of Indian farmers are migrating to cities, because their farms are also unable to cope with climate change already. Why do you think our city is bursting at the seams?

There is already immense friction between the migrants and local population. This is just the beginning. Soon it will get worse and worse. When we ourselves run out of water and food, there will be all kinds of stress in society. Riots, civil wars, mayhem, as things get worse! Then your cars will no more be safe, nor will your houses.

Question is, are we aware of this? When we see how the average human goes about life, as if there is nothing amiss, and worse, contributing the same damage, we really need to pause to wonder: Do we really qualify to be termed ‘intelligent’ beings?

Take the instance of the ‘Elevated Corridors’.

Do we critically analyse, that to build that monstrosity, how much cement and steel will be required? How much emissions, how much carbon footprint, how much pollution, how much mining, how much energy use etc, etc., just to build it? Then once it gets built, it will create an addition of cars, creating more impact. All leading to an acceleration of this climate crisis.

So, isn’t it prudent, isn’t it existential necessity that we start evaluating every decision with a little more intelligence and wisdom? Shouldn’t we talk of sustainable, optimised options, that slow down, if not stop the impending doom?

You please watch this video, and answer this little girl. She, her generation, your kids and grandchildren are going to be the direct beneficiaries of the hell we are creating out of our ignorance, and irresponsibility.

We can sit in our little car bubbles and our nice home bubbles. But you must know this: these bubbles will all come crashing down, if we do not create sustainable mass transit that can take the pressures of these oncoming surge of population, these elevated corridors will come tumbling down in riots, if we continue to behave like zombies. And we will end up stealing our children’s futures with our myopia, ignorance and selfishness!

We encourage you to revisit our earlier letter to you, AND make the right choices.

Note: This letter was shared by the author and published here with minimal edits. Opinions are author’s own.

About Sandeep Anirudhan 3 Articles
Sandeep Anirudhan is a Bengaluru-based activist and founder of Aikyam Community for Sustainable Living, a forum for sustainability issues and Citizens' Agenda for Bengaluru, a forum for civic engagement.

1 Comment

  1. This city is bursting with ppl. It is becoming worst with each passing day. Don’t know y but when common ppl even those coming from other states can see this, why cant the state govt. see the pathetic condition of the city. Afterall its their matru bhoomi.

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