Why is Bengaluru getting hotter every year?

The

heat

in Bengaluru is all that anyone seems to be talking about off late. Prakash Belawadi lists his top five reasons as to why he thinks the city is gettin hotter every year...

1)

BDA

and sleazepot CMs kept compromising on green belt and green cover.

2) Instead of moving development to the satellite zone beyond the original green belt, they kept altering master plans and destroyed both the character and structure of the old city, increasing heat retaining buildings.

3) The development model privileged private vehicles over public transport, cycling or walking, favouring the 'vision' of the new economy. Eg. Road widening, but footpath shrinking; no metro lines to

Electronics City

or Whitefiled in Phase 1; free and irresponsible parking even on busy, narrow roads. Result: 5.5 million vehicles in the city, 14 times more than the roads can handle, spewing heat and poison into the ambient air.

4) Excessive concrete and asphalt surfacing prevent absorption of water into the soil, increase run off from the city, which stands 3000ft above MSL.

5) The wilful destruction of old valleys and channels, which have destroyed the old water bodies of the city built by the founders and protected by the dewans of Old Mysore.