An amendment to install statues

When Governments and authorities all over the world are trying to regenerate the forests that have vanished and taken upon themselves the task to preserve and protect the existing parks and lung spaces, the Karnataka Government recently came up with a dubious decision to delete several buildings from the Cubbon Park limits. The reason-it wanted to install more statues and the Cubbon Park Act was coming in the way.

The Cubbon Park is the second oldest park in Bangalore after the Lalbagh. While the credit for founding Lalbagh goes to Hyder Ali and its subsequent development to Tipu Sultan, it was the British who were responsible for development of Cubbon Park which was conceived in 1870.

This park has always been in the eye of controversy, be it the decision to denotify its boundaries or allow development inside the park. This time around, the very Government that passed a law to protect the park and its environs has passed another law to allow it to install more statues in front of Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha and other buildings which it has taken out of the purview of the Preservation of Parks Act.

When the park was initially laid out on 91 acres, it was only conceived as an extension of the magnificent Residency (Raj Bhavan today) that Mark Cubbon built for himself. The park then faced the Residency and behind the park was vast open ground which sloped towards the Sampangi tank to one side and Siddikatte tank on the other side (Ulsoor Gate side).

After Cubbon left for England by ship, Bowring purchased the bungalow from Government funds and decided to permanently convert it into the official quarters of the Chief Commissioners of Mysore. Even as Bowring stayed in the Residency, Col. John Meade developed the park on 100 acres on land which originally belonged to the Vanniyars.

The Residency was located then at the highest point in Bangalore, High Grounds (3031 feet above sea level), and it was built between 1840 and 1842. The garden below was a perfect contrast to the white bungalow.

Later, the High Court or Attara Katcheri was constructed around the lawns of the park and this was sometime in 1881. By then, the park had extended to 325 acres and it was the buffer between the Pete or old Bangalore and the Cantonment or the Civil and Military Station.

The park was expanded in 1910, 1917 and 1930 and at the time of Independence it sprawled over 325 acres.  

Today, the park has shrunk to just 190 acres and yet it is home to 6000 species of plants and trees apart from playing a perfect host to at least 50 of the 153 species of butterflies found in Bangalore. The park area near the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association has the City’s biggest casuarina and the oldest Silver oak trees in Bangalore. The silver oaks were brought in from Australia.

Today, the Cubbon Park is being looked after by the Horticulture Department. When it was initially planned and in the decades later, it was the Bangalore Municipality which zealously guarded the parka and other public places of Bangalore.

The regulations relating to construction of houses, protection of  trees and parks and playgrounds and other acts relating to town planning were in force much before the Town and Country Planning Act, Municipal law, Outline Development Plan and Comprehensive Development Plan (old and new) came to be written and passed.

The earliest zoning regulations in Bangalore came into being on July 2, 1892 when Arcot Srinivasachar was the President of the Bangalore Municipality. Then, Sir K. Seshadri Iyer was Dewan of Mysore and Sir T.R.A. Thumboochetty (later officiating Dewan) was Chief Judge of Mysore.  

The building regulations were enshrined in the then revenue manual called Mysore Revenue Manual and they had sections where house building was prohibited. One such prohibited area was Sidney Road which is today known as Kasturba Road.

The manual has delineated the boundary along several areas where building activity, sinking of wells and excavations are prohibited. This is issued in the July 1892 copy of the manual.

The only buildings permitted on Sydney Road was the Government Museum in 1876 and the Cubbon Park police station building in 1910. However, this rule was relaxed during the Forties and Fifties and the municipal authorities permitted the construction of bungalows on Kasturba Road opposite the Museum in what was then called MacIver Town.

The real threat to the once pristine park was after Indian attained Independence in 1947. Buildings began coming up on all sides of the park and the extent of the park also began whittling down.

Public outcry forced the State Government to enact the Parks Preservation Act.

One of  the forgotten institutions of Bangalore, the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission (BUAC) headed by M.A. Parthasarthy which was set up in the late 1970s, was the first to spearhead a movement to beautify Bangalore and also to save Cubbon Park from further onslaught.

The BUAC was against allowing demonstrations, protests, rallies and strikes in the park and in 1993 a committee to suggest ways to beautify Bangalore also called for banning all types of  agitations within the park premises.

The committee was called the High-Powered Committee for the beautfication of Bangalore and it was a natural corollary of the Lakshman Rau Committee which reported on the status of tans and lakes in and around Bangalore.

From the 1980s onwards, the police slowly began clamping down on protests in the park and urged the protesters to organize their agitations in other areas such as Jakkarayana Kere, K. R. Circle, Mysore Bank Circle. They also restricted the protests in Cubbon Park to the Gopala Gowda Circle.

In 1983, the Government included the Raj Bhavan, the Vidhana Soudha, the LRDE (the junction of Ali Askar Road and Infantry Road) and the Legislators’ Home (Basaveshwara Circle), totalling 76 acres, in the area of the park.

When the Government sought to denotify these areas from the park land, the first agitation to protect the park was launched. There were demonstrations, dharnas, public protests and even court cases to preserve the park.

In 1995, the High Court admitted a public interest litigation (PIL)   petition by N.H. Desai against the failure of the authorities to remove construction debris from the park. He also wanted the Government to ban rallies in the area.

In 1997 the Government bowed in to public demands and banned public rallies in the park. Subsequently, on July 30, 1998, the then Government of Karnataka revised the boundaries of Cubbon Park and specified the new limits by deleting 32 acres from its limits. This was done to ensure that the  that land on which it planned to construct an annexe to the Legislators’ Home that was being built since 1996 would not face any legal hurdle.

The Parks Act was amended a few years ago to permit the use of land belonging to both Cubbon Park and  Lalbagh by Namma Metro. When the Government carried out the amendment, we were told that it was only a one time measure and that it was for a good public cause. This was the argument that the Advocate-General advanced before the Karnataka High Court when it was hearing the case relating to Cubbon Park and Namma Metro.   

Now comes another amendment and this is to give a free-all to the Government to install statues. The Government gave this reason while introducing this amendment in the Legislative Council.

The Council, in turn, unanimously adopted a legislation deleting Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, Raj Bhavan and Multi-Storyed buildings from the limits of Cubbon Park.

Thus a revised Karnataka Government Parks (Preservation) (Amendment) Bill, 2013 was passed deleting these buildings from its ambit. Presently all these buildings come under Cubbon Park notified area and, hence, any construction and even renovation is strictly governed under the ambit of the act.

The Government said it wanted to install statues of  Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri  in front of the Vidhana Soudha.  As the Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha are within the limits of Cubbon Park, the existing law does not allow for installation of statues anymore.

The Government therefore brought in the amendment to facilitate construction of  statues for Mahatma Gandhi on the land between Vidhana and Vikasa Soudha.

An interesting aside is that though the bill was approved, the Leader of the Opposition in the House, D V Sadananda Gowda, expressed concern over the misuse of the amended law or rather Act.

He said, “Our concern is that in future statues of father, son, brother, mother who were in politics should not come up.”  When some Congress members sought to know whom he was referring to as father-son, the BJP leader said his statement was simple that everyone can guess.

Another BJP member B J Puttaswamy urged the Government not to convert Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha complex to a graveyard by installing statues.

Well, two members of the Legislature have already foretold what happens in the future. Unfortunately, Bangaloreans this time around have remained quiet over the amendment. They are yet to wake up to the dangers of the amended Act.    

An assault on the City's history

If a person came to visit MG Road after several decades, he would be surprised at the change the iconic road has undergone. Known as South Parade in pre-independence era, it was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Road on February 26, 1948 by the then Municipality of Bangalore.

When a first-time visitor saw MG road the first time, what attracted him most was the boulevard running all along the footpath opposite  the road from Anil Kumble Circle to Brigade Road-MG Road Circle or more popularly known as Cauvery Circle.

The boulevard became the first casualty when the Bangalore Metro decided to operate a line on the road. It also decided that the road ought to have two stations-one near Trinity Circle and another near the erstwhile Plaza cinema.

Several buildings fell to demolition and the boulevard too vanished and today there is no trace of it though the Metro has promised a better looking and more aesthetic boulevard. Well, what is the point in pulling down a historic structure and then replacing it with a new one.

Heritage means not only buildings but also parks, fountains, temples, mosques, churches and every conceivable building of antiquity or that which has a history of its own. We have already lost several old buildings to the footfalls of  urban growth and how many more of them should be lost before Bangalore rises as one to protect them.

A part of  Lalbagh has already been swallowed by metro for building a station. There is no doubt about development. Yes, a country needs development and it dies need an efficient transport system. But at what cost. And who will pay for ruining our heritage.

As already mentioned, a part of Lalbagh on RV Road made way for a metro station. It is only a small piece and it is not going to make any difference to the huge park, say some while others say only Nilgiri trees were cut and that they were not ecologically important.

These are specious arguments and if today you have allowed a part of Lalbagh to go, tomorrow somebody else will want another piece for another development. Where is the guarantee that Lalbagh will not shrink again.

The same is the case with Cubbon Park. Here too the Metro has sought a little land to construct a ventalitor or air vent for the station. Did it have to be at Cubbon Park only. Could it not have come up somewhere else. Of course, the engineers are going to say the alignment can’t be changed. Why, I ask. What is so holy that the alignment stays despite protests by environmentalists, heritage lovers and Bangaloreans.

The Government and the Metro shifted several other statues but not the statue of Dr. Ambedkar. Metro says the delay in shifting the statue will cost us dear but the Government does not buy the argument. Who is right and what is the cost of  the project with the statue still in the same position. Is the cost going to escalate or will the underground section on the Vidhana Soudha segment take more time.

These are answers that people have been demanding but they have been either rebuffed or not given sufficiently convincing answers.

Coming back to MG Road, we see the beauty of the once beautiful road gone. The mammoth concrete piers of the Metro and the platform have totally transformed the view.

So also the Lakshman Rau boulevard which runs from South End circle to the Canara Bank Circle. The entire stretch of road was totally overshadowded by branches of trees that formed a canopy, Believe me, not a ray of sunlight fell on the road below. It was so cool and so beautiful. In fact, I know of some many people who came to the ride just to take in its shade and cool.

Today, the green canopy is gone and in its place we see the metro alignment. Many of the parks on either side of this road are down and out. Why? All for the sake of the metro.  Why was the alignment not shifted to say South End road and Diagonal road and to Shopping Complex in Jayanagar. Would it not have made more sense to have a metro station in 4^th Block Jayanagar instead of felling trees near Nanda talkies. Moreover, it would have attracted more traffic.

It is not only the Metro that has eaten up a history. Our own City fathers have to share much of the blame for joining hands with the BDA and other agencies in breaching tanks and lakes and allowing residential layouts to come up.

The BDA is so focused on providing sites that it even encroached upon the Turhalli forests. It backed off only after the Forest Department, which owns the land, filed an FIR. Besides, a high-level official investigation had concluded that the BDA had encroached on 35 acres of 587 acre deciduous minor forest to form a residential layout at Banashankari 6th Stage.

Another project that has run into controversy is the idea of the Horticulture Department to construct a full-fledged parking lot on an open space within the Lalbagh near the Siddapura Gate. The matter is in court and environmentalists, morning walkers and Bangalorens are readying themselves for a battle over the issue. Last heard, the matter was before the High Court of Karnataka.  

The BWSSB too has had a part in not preserving Bangalore’s history. The siphon and water works of  Hesarghatta are rusting and the brick laden pipe from the reservoir to Bangalore to carry water is slowly crumbling. Why can’t BWSSB, which is in charge of the lake, take steps to preserve and protect the equipment and make it a tourist attraction.

The National Highways Authority of India too got into the act and demolished a portion of the Chikjala fort. The fort was already in ruins and the Government and the ASI could have protected the monument instead of allowing the NHAI to bulldoze it for widening the road.

But the first assault on our City’s heritage was by then Municipal Corporation of Bangalore. It decided to officially dismantle the Cenotaph in front of the Corporation Office. The Cenotaph had contained the names of British officers who had lost their lives in the war with Tipu.

The Corporation could have preserved the Cenotaph while at the same time constructing a more beautiful monument to Tipu and Indian soldiers. It did not do that and instead it claimed that the Cenotaph was a disgrace to Indians and had it officially vandalised.

The then City fathers made a major gaffe when they decided to breach several tanks and lakes in the name of mosquito control. The result: Lakes are still being encroached in the name of development and the existing water and drainage network has collapsed, leading to frequent flooding of roads and low-lying areas.

Some of the historic lakes such as Kempambudhi Lake, built by Kempe Gowda, are fighting for survival. Almost a hundred lakes in and around Bangalore have disappeared and today the City is in the throes of a severe water crisis.

Many parks, playgrounds and open spaces which witnessed some historic movements have al but disappeared. The National College Circle in Basavanagudi, which once was the hotbed of Quit India movement, is now an eyesore and the ugly flyover by the BBMP has literally cast a shadow over the circle.

The sandalwood trees in Jnanabharati are being systematically denuded. None seem to care. The Vrushabhavati is a sewage river and neither the Government nor the civic authorities seem to care.

The many buildings associated with Mahatma Gandhi are yet to be properly enumerated and people made aware. The place in Bangalore where Mahatma Gandhi held his prayer meetings is a swimming pool in a five star hotel.

The vast estate of the Roerichs in Tataguni is falling prey to neglect and disuse. Why not declare the estate as a national artist memorial and house the paintings of the Roerichs in their mansion.

The house where eminent Kannada writer DVG lived on DVG Road in Basavanagudi is now a commercial complex. The hotel room where TP Kailasam stayed near Central Police station has no plaque or name plate to announce this fact.

The rocket yards and rocket factories that Tipu set up in Taramangalpet near City Market has vanished without a trace. There is no plaque to remind people that this was the first ever rocket yard in the world.

Bangalore has many temples consecrated by the Madhwa seer, Vyasaraja, to Hanuman. None of them has received Government attention and the one that has been in the news-Gali Anjaneya on Mysore Road-is struggling to contain waste water from overflowing into the temple.

The fort at City Market is virtually unapproachable thanks to the maddening traffic and the high levels of pollution. Yet, there has not been any serious effort to study what effect high levels of pollution will have on the fort walls.

The petes or old localities of Bangalore still have their links with history. The many temples in the Pete such as the Dharmaraya Temple, the Garadi Mane in Ranasinghpet can be put on the tourist map and the monuments protected.       

There are many such historic and religious spots in Bangalore which need immediate care and attention. While there is absolute need for development, it cannot be at the cost of our heritage and culture. The costs of realigning a project to save out heritage is well worth it. Are the authorities listening?