“Bangalore is beyond repair. Lakes are all buried under apartments and garbage menace was the last straw on the horse’s back,” said Governor H R Bhardwaj.
Speaking on the sidelines of the valedictory of the 58th Wildlife Week- 2012 held on Thursday, he said that the ongoing garbage disposal crisis in the city does is not the ethos of the state.
“The crisis is only adding to the complications that the city is already facing. Things are now beyond repair,” he added.
Bhardwaj said that he will not allow any misuse of land in the state and had resisted efforts made by certain ‘powerful people’ to convert forest land into coffee plantations. “There were enactments that came from the Legislature twice and I stopped both those attempts to have coffee plantations after felling trees in these parts of the state,” he said.
“About 25 years ago, Bangalore had a number of lakes and large green cover, especially around Old Airport Road and Whitefield. But due to urbanisation, these lakes, which are a vital part of the city’s ecosystem have vanished,” he said.
Pointing out that the struggle for water in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is a man-made disaster, Bhardwaj said, “There are no efforts to protect trees around Talacauvery in Kodagu and the Kabini Reservoir. We do not understand that if the trees are not protected around catchment areas then we are bound to have a lack of water supply all over the state.”