Bengaluru: Unthinkable! Stench at God's abode

BENGALURU: For many senior citizens, an evening visit to a nearby temple is something they seldom miss. For 70-year-old Lalitamma it is the daily visit to Sri Raghavendra Swamy Temple in Hosakerehalli she looks forward to. “It is the only time of the day I get to meet my walking buddies,” she observes with a smile.

However, for the last few months the temple visit has become a challenge for these women and some have even stopped it altogether. The reason – BBMP has opened a garbage segregation centre near the temple.

Lalitamma said, “I miss my friends, but what can we do at this age? There’s a garbage segregation point right outside the temple. The stench is unbearable and it also attracts mosquitoes. We fear we may contract diseases during temple visits. Our families also try to dissuade us from going to temple because of the garbage.”   

The Raghvendra Swamy Temple Road in Hosakerehalli has been a garbage dumping yard for decades. But it did not pose any problem to nearby residents as pourakarmikas used to pick up the garbage every now and then, until the BBMP made garbage segregation compulsory.

Now it has been turned into a segregation point and it is the schoolchildren who bear the brunt, said Mayamma, a street vendor. “There’s a government primary school near the garbage segregation point. Students who walk to school often pass by the segregation point and they are chased by stray dogs. Sometimes parents escort the children, but often they have to walk alone and are petrified to do so. Despite many complaints to the BBMP officials, they haven’t done anything,” she said.   

It is no surprise that Hosakerehalli has high number of dog bite cases and children are easy targets. The stray dog menace continues all through the day and has become rampant ever since the segregation point came into existence, said Mohan, a resident.

“The garbage piles have been attracting large number of dogs to the locality and the dog population in Hosakerehalli is now at an all-time high. Most of these dogs have not been vaccinated and although we request the authorities to shift the segregation point, they turn a deaf ear. They claim they do not have alternate space. We are fed up of hearing this reply,” he said.

‘Residents threw garbage here even earlier'

DC talks to ward corporator Rajeshwari Cholraj Excerpts.

The garbage segregation point at Hosakerehalli is in the middle of the locality that is buzzing with activity. Why has it not been shifted?
The segregation point has been a garbage dumping yard for the last 25 years and all the residents used to throw garbage at this spot. When segregation became compulsory, BBMP trucks started parking here to let autos load garbage. It became a segregation point over a few months.

The locality has grown in the last two decades. The garbage point has started attracting stray dogs…
There are a significant number of stray dogs here, but it is not because of garbage. Moreover, all these dogs are vaccinated and there’s nothing to worry about.

How do you plan to resolve this issue?
I am waiting for the Survey Department officials to survey a dead-lake area in the locality. Once the survey is completed, I will try to set up a segregation point on the fringes of the lake. Then, the segregation point can be shifted.