Emerging trend of Vertical gardens in Bengaluru

Development in a country is always calculated in relation with urbanisation. More number of people living in an urban setup, more developed is the country. But is it true in real sense? Is living in concrete houses, working in glass skyscrapers real development? Many people in India migrate to cities every year with a hope of having a better life and future. Our cities are becoming denser by the day with poor quality of air.

All the big cities in India be it Delhi NCR or Mumbai or Bengaluru are not ready for such mass migrations. Cities have expanded by taking in nearby villages and replacing agricultural fields with concrete jungles. But traffic congestion, lack of open spaces, air pollution, high real estate pricing, inadequate water and electricity supply, poor public transport are some of the prime issues that every city in India faces today.

Replacing green patches with built masses has affected our eco system in a big way, amount of rainfall has reduced, water tables have reduced and quality of ground water has gone down. Since there is limited availability of land and it has become a priced possession in cities Bengaluru city came up with its first vertical garden to make the city beautiful and deal with the problem of pollution. The concept of vertical gardens in China went viral on social media platforms some time ago and India followed the league. Bengaluru is the first city in India to adapt the concept.

An initiative of Say Trees, as a pilot project vertical garden has been developed on the Hosur Road Electronics City Flyover with over 3500 saplings of 10 different plant species. To irrigate these plants an automated drip irrigation system has been installed within the garden and all the plants will get hydrated every day with their dose of 100 millilitres of water. The garden has been built on the pillar of the flyover, so no additional land has been used. As part of the initiative SayTrees will soon cover all the columns of the flyover with each side of the column having a unique design.

Vertical gardens should be part of all the ongoing residential projects in Bengaluru as well as under construction infrastructure Bengaluru projects like flyovers and metro rail. Such systems can be easily installed during the construction stage and would help landscape blank columns and walls beautifully.

This is a great attempt to make our cities green and other cities in India should follow suit. It is an innovative and effective way to replace the lost greenery in our cities. There are many benefits of creating such biodiversity. They help in reducing urban heat island effect, reducing smog, improving quality of air, act as sound barrier, it creates healthy habitat for other living form like birds and insects, and they make the space look beautiful. Hopefully all the state governments would start taking their environment seriously and work towards making a better place for our progeny.