Depleting green cover, a grey area of concern

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Trapped in a vicious green-grey debate, can Bengaluru afford to surrender the last vestiges of its once green heritage? As the development brigade marches on with its concrete monster projects of dubious utility, here comes an alarming piece of statistics: By 2025, grey will dominate 98.5% of the city’s landscape.

Years ago, its arresting imagery of eight Bengaluru maps from 1973 to 2020 had shocked everyone. The 1973 map, with its 68.2% green expanse had morphed into a ‘built-up’ mosaic of 78.7% red by 2017.  Bangalore, once branded as the Garden city due to dense vegetation cover, which has declined from 68.27% (1973) to less than 15% (2013).