Exhibition shows how growing city is destroying its peri-urban areas

A photo exhibition by scholars from Azim Premji University highlights how the unbridled growth of the city has forced whole societies into degradation.

The photos show farmers who “shifted from cultivating 4 acres of ragi to 0.5 acres of vegetables” and baby corn grown from “perennial sewage” fed farming in Vrishabhavati valley in Byramangala. “Research has shown that vegetables and milk consumed in Bengaluru city contain harmful heavy metals. Essentially, what the city sends out essentially comes back to it,” said Dhanya Bhaskar, a faculty member at the university.

She said a team of three research scholars and collaborators from other universities, including foreign institutions, were tracing the harm done to peri-urban and suburban areas around Bengaluru.

“All these changes have happened over the last 10 years and it is very difficult to trace them. After one year into the research, we can say that more than 50% of farming area has been claimed by the growth of the city and its industries,” she said.

Two photos juxtapose a grazing land (gomal) turned into an industrial area and a cow munching on the plants grown on the highway median. “Cattle are left with no option but to graze on available vegetation. They have become urban residents of their own kind, roaming freely around,” the caption reads.

The photos of Vidhana Soudha and the quarry of Vidhana Soudha Betta near Koira lay bare the untold story behind the city’s iconic buildings. The quarries did not just provide stones for these buildings but are now turning into garbage dumping yards, polluting underground water.

The exhibition will continue till Sunday at Rangoli Metro Art Center on MG Road.