BENGALURU: In keeping with their mission to make Lalbagh Botanical Garden litter-free, the Horticulture Department has banned feeding of dogs and birds within the premises. This comes not long after the ban on plastic bottles, food packets, covers, etc.“Visitors would bring biscuit packets to feed dogs and throw them on the ground or grass. Others would feed food grains to birds such as pigeons.
We have put a stop to all this recently. This move, along with banning plastic containers and covers at the entrances, is already showing improvement. Lalbagh is 70 to 80 per cent cleaner, and the stray dog population has gone down by 50 to 60 per cent,” said Y S Patil, director, Horticulture Department.
He admits that they still have a long way to go before eliminating all traces of trash within this 240-acre garden. M Jagadeesh, joint director of the department, said, “We are collecting all plastic bottles and items brought in by walkers and visitors and disposing them in a dustbin cart at all the four entrances of the park. We are educating people further so they become aware of this new rule.”
MR Chandrashekar, deputy director of the department, said walkers would bring leftovers from their homes to feed animals, thereby inviting other animals such as rodents, which would damage the plants, shrubs and trees.
“Everything from biscuits to biryani from their dinner the night before was being disposed within the park by visitors while feeding stray dogs. This used to irritate other regular walkers, which is why we put an end to this. While visitors coming from 9 am to 6 am have not been allowed to bring in any food packets since the last two months, the ban for early morning walkers entering at 5.30 am started recently,” said Chandrashekar.
Fines will range from Rs 100 to Rs 500
After educating the public for two more months, the department plans to start levying fines on violators. They hope the situation will not come to that point with enough awareness and promotion of their new rules.
“There is a provision to fine violators, which we have not started yet. At present, we do not have enough manpower to implement it all across the lung space. We will allow our officials to crack down on those littering maybe two months down the line,” Patil informed. The fine ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 500.
Reacting to the ban, Anil Kumar Janardanan, a frequent visitor at Lalbagh said, “They need to also ban roadside vendors and hawkers at the entrance. Vendors selling pani puri, samosas and other street food are dumping their waste and paper plates within the park. Adding some CCTV cameras to catch offenders may also help.”
“During the flower show, there were 50 chaat vendors and others selling toys and balloons. Round-the-clock monitoring should be done with cameras or have officials in plain clothes to catch defaulters on the spot,” Anil Kumar added.