Bengaluru, the Garden City!
It was my dream destination since my childhood. Thus I was thrilled in February 2020, when I finally got the opportunity to visit the place to conduct fieldwork for my doctoral research on the perceptions of the uses of urban green infrastructure…
In my research, I aim to understand how people rate the importance of uses of green infrastructure across cities and villages in the urbanizing context of the megacity of Bengaluru. Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas, combined with environmental features that provide spaces for recreation, clean air and other ‘ecosystem services’. It also includes lakes, rivers and other water bodies, generally called ‘blue infrastructure’. In my research, I consider greenspaces, mainly including trees and their natural surroundings, as green infrastructure.
The history of Bengaluru’s green infrastructures
Bengaluru is well-known for its unique green infrastructure, which is among others owed to its special history. Despite the originally rugged terrain and semi-arid climate in the region, the first settlements in Bengaluru date back as far as 517 CE. Eventually, these settlements would expand together with the cities’ greenspaces.
Modern Bengaluru was founded in 1537 CE by Kempe Gowda, a chieftain of the then South-Indian Vijayanagara Empire. During his reign, he gradually expanded Begaluru, allowed the native thorny groves to protect the city from external invasion and established a market place at the center.
Since then, the landscapes of Bengaluru and its sourroundings have changed significantly, not only because of the many invasions it experienced: Natural trenches were constructed, which were later connected to form lakes for rainwater harvesting. Suitable plant species were introduced to the landscape to serve multiple purposes: as food, flowers, timber, for textile production, worshipping, etc. These plants also fostered the commercial activities of the city. Economic activities expanded and so did Bengaluru. Green infrastructures became characteristic features of the city.
However, with the recent developments especially in the sector of information technology, the city’s identity is rather shifting to a software and IT Hub — the ‘Silicon Valley of Asia’, as it is often called. The influx of people is increasing, as is the general level of income. Today, Bengaluru is already a megacity.
Yet, when walking a few kilometers away from the city centre, rural features are strongly prevalent — such as rural houses with home gardens, as well as grazing livestock in and around farm land. With increasing urbanization, however, the uses of the area’s green infrastructures might undergo significant changes. I was super excited to learn about how local people would perceive these uses.
Approaching the Garden City
My excitement about Bengaluru was linked to my childhood memory. During my primary schooling in a rural village in Kathmandu, Nepal, the seniors from economically privileged families used to go to India for their higher education. One of the main destinations in this regard was Bengaluru. The juniors of those families used to describe Bengaluru as a ‘heavenly’ place with very clean surroundings, lots of greenery and water bodies. Therefore, doing fieldwork there was an opportunity for me to do a ‘reality check’, to explore and to experience the city myself.
I reached Bengaluru for what was planned to be my first research stay on February 17th, 2020, planning to examine the ‘greens’ along the rural-urban gradient of the city. In fact, I already started to observe them before landing, as they were visible through the window of the airplane — I saw trees, patches and lines, rivers, streams, and lakes along with buildings, roads. and other human-made structures.
Methodwise, the fieldwork I was to carry out was unlike any I had done before. I was planning to conduct a survey using the photo elicitation method. In order to prepare this, I took photos of greenspaces (i.e., trees and lakes, and the natural or semi-natural spaces surrounding them), which people could relate to in their daily lives and later respond to in the survey questionnaire. It took me around three weeks to decide on the tree species, to take the photos, to get in touch with people and places at the survey sites, and to adapt the questionnaire. I did so together with our local partners from Azim Premji University and with people from the neighbourhoods and villages.
Reflecting on the efforts today, it was all worth doing so: I got connected with the local context and people, and it enabled the survey to be truly ‘place-based’.
Covid-19: A twist in the fieldwork
When the photos, samples, enumerators and the questionnaire were prepared, the survey was ready for a kickoff. And indeed we started to carry out a pretest for one day — until something totally unforeseen got into our way: the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in Bengaluru. All of a sudden, we had no other option but to suspend our fieldwork. I returned to Germany, from where I am pursuing my doctoral studies, on March 16th, 2020. Even after my return, I stayed in close contact with the hired enumerators and local partners. We expected the pandemic to be contained in a few months, meaning that I would go back to Bengaluru and continue the fieldwork soon. As of today (May 3rd, 2021), this has never happened.
With the support of the research teams in Germany and Bengaluru, we finally decided to resume the fieldwork without my physical presence on site, with the support of the local enumerators. We trained them online and started the pretest of the survey on January 2nd, 2021 for four days. Finally, we conducted the main survey from early January to mid-February remotely. For me, work according to Indian time while living my everyday life and sleeping according to German time was quite an adventure during this time.
Connecting the dots …
Although the suspension of our fieldwork was a discouraging experience at first, we could in fact still make use of the time and resources we had invested by then. For resuming the survey, we were able to use the same photos and the same method, and to hire two of the same enumerators from the previous year. However, everything was based on my fieldwork trip: Had I not actually been in Bengaluru in early 2020 and prepared the survey on site, performing fieldwork this year would not have been as easy and efficient. Collecting data of a good quality was only possible because we understood the context well.
Right now, we are in the process of analysing the data we have collected. We are looking forward to sharing the knowledge generated from it with you soon!
I conducted this fieldwork in the frame of my doctoral research on ‘Social-ecological dynamics, ecosystem services uses of green and blue infrastructures in urbanizing environment’. It is part (Cluster C) of the larger project ‘Social-ecological systems in the Indian rural-urban interface: Functions, scales, and dynamics of transition’, funded by the German Research Foundation. The project update can be accessed here; publications are to be found under this link.
