It is not for the government to take the blame forever

 It is the citizen upon whom the blame sits heavy. Last year, now, the nation was talking about the unprecedented landslides in the Western Himalayan states. People stopped talking about that soon.

Now as a week has passed, people are already talking about moving on. But who are buying these houses that may have come up in lake beds. A cursory glance suggests that most such houses sitting on lake beds belongs to all strata of the community. The rich build the house and the poor follow for jobs and voila, the lake turns into a multi-story apartment. Roads come up where water flowed, following the pattern as the British did when building roads along elephant paths, usually the shortest way to reach point A to B. People bought homes in places where a nuanced understanding of the cities geography may have discouraged potential home owners from investing in such regions.

There are several stakeholders vying for the blame, but it is true that the endless greed for comfort means that for many citizens, India’s fundamental duties have been relegated to secondary school syllabus.

As a nation, the potential societal reluctance to recognise and respond to climate threats means we as a nation, are unlikely to ramp up our commitment to the Paris Agreement to restrict temperature rise to less than 1.5 degree. Bengaluru stands out but only marginally so. Having committed to the Paris Agreement and being a part of the C40 cities network which seeks to channelize collective actions for effectively reducing impacts of climate change, Bengaluru has a lot on its plate.

The choices are stark. If cities want to safeguard the poorest and marginalised, focus should be rejuvenate the water management system in the city. And that requires interventions at many levels and at a great professional and infrastructural cost, leaving aside the legal implications.