A running-and-catching game was in progress on Saturday afternoon in Koramangala in an unlikely play space amidst piles of garbage, some on the land and some floating in the storm-water drain (SWD).
The children, most of them from the EWS quarters in Ejipura, seemed oblivious of the filth and stink. Watching the scene, V.S. Krishna, who was sitting outside a temple on the main road opposite the National Games Village, said the scene had been the same for years. “People have got used to the filth. Dengue, malaria and other diseases have come and gone, mosquitoes thrive, but nothing has changed,” he said.
Residents in the more plush parts of Koramangala say that the problem is not limited to the poorer pockets alone.
“Three members of my family recovered from dengue recently. Restaurants that have cropped up everywhere freely dump garbage into open drains. Those that have been closed, are even more dangerous as we don’t know what is happening under them,” complained C.N. Radhakrishnan, a resident of the 3rd Block.
A Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike official, on the other hand, claimed that dengue cases have been sporadic and has nothing to do with open drains and garbage since the breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying dengue virus is fresh water. “As for the density of mosquitoes, they are mostly found in the evenings around SWDs. But it is not true that the mosquito menace is more here,” he said. While Koramangala councillor B.N. Kokila was unavailable for response, her husband S. Radhakrishna offered an explanation on her behalf. He said that fogging was being carried out routinely. “The problem of mosquitoes is because there are so many SWDs in the vicinity. There is also garbage problem,” he said.
Six points in the ward had been identified where no dumping of garbage will be allowed, he said.
