Bengaluru may be known as the ‘science capital of India’, but ironically, hardly any science is seen applied on the ground to make the lives of its citizens safe and convenient. The city, now housing 1.4 crore people, won its sobriquet as the science capital for hosting a high concentration of research and scientific institutions.
Nine of the 60 labs of the Defence Research & Development Organisation are in the city, besides the country’s premier scientific research institution, the Indian Institute of Science, which has 47 departments under the six divisions of biological sciences, chemical sciences, electrical sciences, interdisciplinary research, mechanical sciences, and physical and mathematical sciences.
The Indian Space Research Organisation is headquartered in the city. There are national institutes of excellence working on astrophysics, nanotechnology and space science, too. No wonder then that a slew of private scientific research organisations also find it conducive to be located in Bengaluru.
However, despite boasting such a robust ecosystem with the presence of a large community of scientists, who are also citizens of the city, no scientific approach appears to seep down to the basics of town planning, structural design, tree plantation, road and flyover design, local layout planning and the health system.
There is a lack of even safe footpaths, or bus stops set up close to road junctions cause frequent traffic jams. Solutions to road congestion in the form of subterranean tunnels are being proposed by political leaders without prior scientific tests conducted to assess the safety of standing on-surface structures, or the possibility of these causing sinkholes in the future.
Residential layouts have encroached on lake beds without developers understanding the basic logic that when it rains heavily, nature claims its spaces, and that human-occupied lake-beds would get submerged along with the dwellings—an example of failure in applying basics of science and logic in development. And all this in a city that hosts the largest working population of foreigners outside the national capital that is attracted to its technological sectors.
A scientific approach means the systematic study of structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation and testing of theories against evidence obtained. This needs to seep into city planning and services for safety and convenience of the people. It would be a lesson for cities across India to learn.