Residents, it's time to lace up your running shoes and join the movement towards a healthier lifestyle! 

Calling all residents and Management Committees of Member Apartments: Let's rally together and make our communities the fittest in Bangalore! 

To participate, simply designate a fitness coordinator from your apartment complex. The fitness coordinator will then enter the details of all the registered participants via the link: tinyurl.com/Fittestcommunity

Whether you are part of a large, medium or small apartment complex, every participant counts towards winning the coveted Fittest Community Cup in your category, even if there are very few participants from your apartment! 

Let's show our strength in numbers and make our mark on June 9th!

This beautiful lake, once in need of restoration, has undergone a massive transformation thanks to the dedicated efforts of citizen volunteers and support from the government. Please join us with your family to marvel at the success story of the lake rejuvenation and land restoration efforts. 

• Lake Tour 9-9:45 am: Discover the rejuvenated beauty of Somasundarapalya Lake and adjoining Sundaravana - Miyawaki forest.  
• Documentary screening and talks 10am -12 pm: Indoors at Mahaveer Seasons Apartment(next to the lake) 
• ⁠Fun activities planned for kids. 
• RSVP to help plan better - https://tinyurl.com/baf-wwf-environmentday 

Credits: Community Task Force and Rotary HSR, Say Trees

Anyone from Association or resident can form one team of apartment and submit below form by going through description of form carefully. There are few rules that participants need to ensure before nomination like space, team etc. We will choose 4 teams from each zone and matches/winners will be organized/chosen within the same zone. These matches are being organized in 8 zones of Bangalore. All of you need to quickly go through the description, create your apartment team and submit your nominations. The good news is that for BAF members participation is fully free.

Please rush and submit your nominations ASAP at THIS LINK 

Daan Utsav (earlier called the Joy of Giving Week) is India’s ‘festival of giving’. Launched in 2009, the festival is celebrated every year from October 2 to 8. Now in its 13th year, it is celebrated by millions of people from all walks of life doing acts of giving - individually or collectively as a group - donating their money, time, goods or skills. They do this by creating or participating in events of their choice. Daan Utsav is a movement. It is NOT an NGO or organisation. It has no employees and all activities are driven by passionate, committed volunteers who are keen to spread the message of giving. Anyone can be a volunteer and do any giving activity in their home, school, community or office. 

For some years now BAF has been spreading the message of Daan Utsav amongst its member RWAs. 

This year BAF is helping to kickstart some initiatives of giving back in the Daan Utsav week and having them continue beyond. 

Residential complexes across India celebrate #DaanUtsav in a variety of interesting ways. It helps them bond together as a community, experiencing joy and enhancing and well-being. It is an opportunity to give back, celebrate and say thank you. 

This festival of giving, join the celebrations by participating in one or more of the initiatives listed below.  

Have a collection of grains (rice or dal) for your building staff. Residents can get together to make food (breakfast/ chaat/ sandwiches etc.) coffee/ tea and treat the staff as a token of gratitude. The collected grains can be gifted to them on this occasion. If you have questions email: daanutsavbangalore@gmail.com Or call: Gopi (9742801010), Varsha (8277021417) 

Joy through gifting your children’s things: 

Go Wheedle is an online shopping platform of pre-loved baby and kids’ products, promoting sustainability and a greener world. Organise a collection drive of children’s old clothes, books, toys, stationery, prams, walkers etc.in your apartment and gift this to needy children through Go Wheedle. 

To organise a collection drive email Sneha snehal@gowheedle.com or call her 77606 05631 

India Generosity Run: 

104.3 calories are burned every mile when you run, how about doing that for a noble cause. Participate as a community in the India Generosity Run. People can pledge their daily morning/ evening walk towards a cause. Residents including children above 10 years can walk, run, cycle, skate, skip, dance, push a wheelchair or a pram…as long as they are moving! (Please add attached QR Code) Register here: (https://iamhere.app/india_generosity_run). If you have questions email Pooja poohja@gmail.com or call her 9004321620 

Pratham Books has designed the Library-in-a-Classroom (LIC) product that is a low cost, high utility model. It is literally a library on the wall, with richly illustrated children’s books, attractively displayed and provides a print rich environment for children. This Daan Utsav partner with Pratham to provide these libraries to children all across India. Get together as a community and sponsor a library at a Govt. school near you through Pratham’s Donate a Book Campaign https://donateabook.org.in/checkout/ To gift a library to a school near your apartment email Malathi malathi@prathambooks.org or call her 9945919619 

Apartments can organise a gender sensitisation program in your apartment with Stree Jagruti Samiti. Apartment residents can help educate and increase awareness of different schemes like Jan Dhan etc. Register your domestic help for Ambedkar Sahaya Hastha Yojane today at This Link

Stree Jagruti Samiti (SJS) is a mass organisation with a vision to build an equal society-one that is without class, caste, gender discrimination, hierarchies or violence. Gender sensitisation programs in the apartments, with residents and workers as well as with the public to raise awareness against oppression and exploitation of domestic workers and women, within the home, in society and at their workplaces. 

To organise a session email Geetha Menon gmenonsjs@gmail.com or call her on 9845445408

Find more ideas and ways to give this Daan Utsav here: 

See how people across India are celebrating here: https://daanutsav.org/events/ 

Find Daan Utsav in Apartments Toolkit here: https://daanutsav.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Apartments.pdf 

Take lots of photos and videos and share these on social media so that you can inspire others to celebrate. Don’t forget to tag us Instagram : @daanutsavbangalore, @daanutsav Twitter: @BAFBLR , @daanutsav Facebook: @BangaloreApartmentsFederation @daanutsav @daanustavbangalore LinkedIn: Daan Utsav 

Thousands of years ago, at the dawn of civilization on Planet Earth, the environment around the planet was pristine and beautiful! Humans enjoyed life and flourished in the highly conducive environment! The environment world over however, has with urbanization and the evolution of civilization, progressively deteriorated and very significantly over the past couple of centuries, post industrialization! The Air we breathe, the Water we consume, the Soil on which we live and the Aesthetics around us have all unfortunately been impacted rather negatively! Global Warming, Climate Change and other adverse global phenomena are now staring at us! The future for our planet seems rather bleak!

The pristine environment of the 60s and 70s of our own fast growing, prestigious city of Bengaluru itself, has in the past half a century alone, almost disappeared! People who have lived in the Silicon Valley of India for 6 or 7 decades would be able to reflect a clear perception of this radical environmental degradation! Left to itself, the environment in gated communities in the city too would be much the same as that exists in rest of the city! The gated communities experience the very same pollution as the others living in the city do! Although every individual living in Bengaluru has the duty to work hard towards reducing pollution, in this article, the author is sharing his thoughts on the initiatives that gated communities can consciously take, towards reducing the pollution and improving the environment for them!

The Oxford English Dictionary defines environment as, 'The natural world or physical surroundings in general, either as a whole or within a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.' 

Thus, what surrounds us needs to be positively impacted in our attempt to improve our environment! The current environment here can be analyzed in 4 critical parts: 

 1. Air 

 2. Water 

 3. Soil 

 4. Aesthetics

Among others, Industries, Power Plants, Automobiles and Diesel Generating sets have been belching out Carbon dioxide (CO2), Sulphur oxides (SOx), Nitrogen oxides (NOx), Carbon monoxide (CO), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), Particulate Matter (PM), Persistent Free Radicals, Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Ammonia, Odours and other pollutants pushing up levels of the green house gases, other unacceptable gases and particulate matter in the atmospheric air, to alarming levels! These gases in the atmosphere lead to acid rain! The current level of oxygen in our atmosphere is about 21%, adequate for life to sustain on Planet Earth! As oxygen reacts chemically with almost anything, any significant increase in the level of oxygen in the atmosphere in the immediate future is not practical. However, the fact that the current level is maintained at 21% indicates that there is constant production of the same – the chief source of oxygen being photosynthesis by plants, whereby carbon dioxide is absorbed by them, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere! While dust, dirt, soot, smoke, etc. are easily seen by the human eye, there are Particulate Matters (PM) of size 2.5 micrometers or less (PM2.5) that can't be seen by us, but cause Particle Pollution. PM2.5 concentration in Bengaluru is currently 1.7 times the annual air quality guideline value determined by WHO. Whereas an Air Quality Index (AQI) of up to 50 is declared good by WHO, in many locations in Bengaluru it exceeds 200, many times during the year. WHO has declared that AQI of 200 to 300 is unhealthy to humans! In landfills located around Bengaluru, one senses the obnoxious odour of perishing organic matter. Methane is a by-product of the anaerobic respiration of bacteria thriving in landfills with high amounts of moisture. At maximum anaerobic decomposition, the methane concentration can reach up to 50% of the composition of landfill gas, exposing humans to the risk of explosion / combustion. There is also noise pollution on account of DG sets, Air Conditioners, Submersible Pumps and other machinery in gated communities!

Industries and homes have been spewing out dyes, chemicals, sewage and other pollutants into water bodies and water ways, polluting not only the waters in them, but also the ground water itself – which contains now, unacceptable levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, etc. and at times even heavy metals in some locations! Bengaluru is receiving an LPA rainfall of 986.1 mm. This quantum of rainfall over Bengaluru is more than adequate for its entire population, @135 lpcd specified by WHO, during the entire year! Yet, the citizens in Bengaluru do not have enough water! There are locations in Greater Bengaluru, where one needs to reach down to well below 1,800 ft into the ground, for water!

Chemicals polluting the water have also been settling down on the soil, polluting the soil as well! Added to it are the chemical fertilizers used in the belief that they 'enrich' our soil and the pesticides used in gardens and agricultural fields, polluting the soil even more significantly. All these adversely impact the mini and micro life in the soil, that include microbes like viruses, bacteria, fungi and protists, invertebrates such as earthworms and nematodes, plant roots and even small mammals living in burrows. When the life below ground is impacted adversely, food production could be impacted too with adverse impact on life above ground!

Humans have unfortunately learnt to discard waste around and live in the midst – the result, appearance around us is adversely impacted! Landfills have a negative impact on the aesthetics around us, accentuated by unkempt surroundings in many places! When one looks Bengaluru around, what catches the eye of the beholder is among others, several piles of waste, dumped indiscreetly, all over! Added to it, people do keep spitting all over too!

How all these pollutants impact our environment is not very difficult to comprehend! What is applicable the world over is applicable to our city as well and the gated communities in it too! While these communities are not in a commanding position to wield any great influence on the citywide metrics, they certainly can implement a number of carefully designed sustainable practices, to impact their own environment, positively. If all the gated communities take such initiatives, the environment of the city as a whole too would be impacted positively! Replicating such best practices across the length and breadth of our great nation would similarly have a positive impact on the nation as a whole! Extrapolated, such measures would also greatly benefit the little Planet Earth, which we call, 'Home'! With the intention therefore of spreading a positive message among those living in gated communities in Bengaluru, let us take a look at the implementable sustainable practices highlighted below!

While not much can be done by gated communities at reducing the generation of these pollutants in large scale, they certainly can implement many measures, in order to bring about some reduction: 

1. Install roof top Solar Generating Plants, so as to generate as much renewable energy as practical, for the consumption of the community – to the extent of such generation, capacity of polluting Thermal Plants in the country can be reduced! In addition, as the power drawn from the utility vendor gets reduced, the community can save significant quantum of money. 

2. Make use of Electric Vehicles (EV) in preference to Fossil Fuel Vehicles (FFV), to bring about a significant reduction in emission of pollutants as exhaust of FFVs! One of the most important steps towards making a switch from FFVs over to EVs easy, can be the installation of EV Charging stations in the complexes! 

3. Make use of LED Lamps, in place of GLS / CFL / standard Tube Lamps, to reduce the energy consumption / need! 

4. Grow a number of trees around in the complex, so as to filter out PM from the air, rendering the air available for the residents, less polluted than the air outside! 

5. Grow a number of trees, plants and bushes in the premises, so as to reduce the carbon footprint in the complex!

Several sustainable practices can be implemented by gated communities, in order to reduce their need to obtain water from external sources and their own bore wells too! Such reduction in need would result in significant saving in cost too! 

1. Harvest the rainfall on the terrace, filter and use for regular requirement in homes – Rainwater comes from God, absolutely free, to everyone! 

2. Harvest the entire runoff and recharge into ground, so as to ensure that not a drop of rainwater flows out waste – when done, level of the water table in the complex would rise and good potable soft water can be drawn from even open wells, if sunk in the complex! 

3. Economise and reduce consumption of water by using Aerators, reuse of RO reject, etc! 

4. Meter the water supplied to each unit in the complex to promote frugal use and drive the demand from each unit in the complex south, resulting in significant reduction in total quantum of water needed! 

5. Use the treated water obtained from the STP for flushing toilets, gardening and car wash! 

6. Install drip irrigation and sprinkler systems for watering the garden – this will not only reduce the consumption of water but also result in reduction of man power required! 

7. Plant a lot of trees and plants around - roots of trees and plants retain water in the soil, conserving and protecting the available water!

Throwing the waste out the window is an archaic practice – treating the waste appropriately, in order to obtain useful product from it is a sustainable practice. It also simultaneously ensures that waste doesn't pollute our environment! 

1. Minimize Waste generation in the complex! a. Stop using single use plastics and start weaning away from all plastics, altogether! b. Stop using disposables at the table – use instead, stainless steel cutlery & crockery and cloth napkins, instead of tissues! c. Encourage women folk to switch over to reusable menstrual cups or cloth napkins, instead of disposable sanitary napkins! 

2. Segregate waste, so as to ensure that each type is treated appropriately and the adverse impact of the different types of waste on the environment is minimised – Wet (Kitchen) Waste, Garden Waste, Dry recyclable Waste, Landfill, eWaste, Medical Waste, etc! 

3. While the different types of waste need to be disposed off diligently as determined from time to time, through channels that are authorized to handle them, Wet (Kitchen) Waste and Garden Waste can be composted in situ, to produce good quality compost for use in the garden of the complex – excess thereof can be sold to farmers, to produce food there from!

A clean beautiful garden with a lot of foliage and colourful flowers improves the aesthetics of the complex and is an asset to every complex! Space can be no limitation as even in small spaces, Miyawaki forests can be established with native trees and plants, for rapid growth! Such gardens improve the availability of oxygen in the air around, while several tree / plant species purify the air / enhance the mood / health of people around! Roots of trees and plants hold the soil together and prevent soil erosion! Fragrant flowers in the garden provide the entire complex, fragrance! Honey bees being very sensitive to the presence of harmful chemicals, their presence in the garden and beehives in the complex are indicators that the environment in the complex is good and conducive to sustainable life! 

1. Grow a number of trees and plants in the premises, yielding colourful / fragrant flowers! 

2. Encourage Honey Bees and Beehives in the premises – they are very important pollinators! 

3. Develop a patch of herbs, so that good natural medication is at hand, when needed! 

4. Carefully remove weeds, Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) and the like, producing allergens that adversely impact the health of humans! 

5. Avoid use chemical fertilizers in the garden, but use manure obtained from the in-house composting plant(s)! 

6. Avoid use of chemical pesticides, but use organic pesticides – larvae of insects need not all be killed, they are part of the bio-diversity around us / food chain and are food to birds and other life forms in the garden! Encouraging birds in the premises could lead to creation of a natural aviary to walk by! 

7. Avoid the use of chemical fogging to kill mosquitoes, but ensure that there is no stagnant water in the premises / vicinity for their reproduction – mosquitoes can't all be killed! 

8. Don't drop waste anywhere, but keep the environs clean by following a practice of daily cleaning – once or more often! 

9. Don't spit anywhere – it's a bad practice, spreading diseases! 10. Pick after your pets! 

11. Discourage pigeons from roosting in the premises – they cause chronic ailments in humans!

Following these sustainable practices in gated communities can be the steps in the right direction! Let each of our gated communities start implementing every sustainable practice now, one by one, step by step! Every baby step a community takes in the right direction could reduce pollution and improve our environment! With the intention of encouraging the gated communities to pursue such positive measures, the Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF) with a membership of over 1100 apartment / layout / villa complexes in its fold, has launched the 'BAF Hasiru Apartment Contest'! All the member complexes of BAF as well as non member complexes in Greater Bengaluru have been invited to enter the contest – those who have implemented sustainable practices in the past would be properly evaluated by appropriately 'Weighted Evaluation System' and rewarded in a glittering ceremony in Bangalore International Centre, at 4:00 PM on Aug 20, 2022!

The contest closes on Sun, Jul 17, 2022 – participate by clicking https://bit.ly/baf-hac! The list of questions in the contest for which some preparatory effort could be needed, has been broadcast in all the BAF 'Whatsapp' and 'Telegram' fora – once these responses are gathered, entering the data in the contest google form needs only 10 to 15 minutes! Many questions warrant only 'yes / no' responses! Hurry and participate – rewards are awaiting your participation!

Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF) is happy to announce that the retrospective STP rule has been suspended with immediate effect. In a meeting called by Hon’ble Minister for Bengaluru Development & Town Planning, Mr. K. J. George, Hon’ble Home Minister, Mr. Ramalinga Reddy and Worshipful Mayor Mr. Sampath Raj in the presence of BWSSB Chairman, Mr. Tushar Girinath and KSPCB Member Secretary Mr. G. V. Ranga Rao, the Governing Council of BAF made a presentation on the impracticality of retrospective STPs in older apartments. Mr. George, Mr. Ramalinga Reddy & Mr. Sampath Raj, after patiently listening to the requests made by BAF representing lakhs of affected apartment residents, agreed with the viewpoint and issued directions to suspend the retrospective rule with immediate effect. The same was communicated to the media through a press statement. BAF takes this opportunity to thank Hon’ble Minister for Bengaluru Development & Town Planning, Mr. K. J. George, Hon’ble Home Minister, Mr. Ramalinga Reddy, Worshipful Mayor Mr. Sampath Raj, BWSSB Chairman, Mr. Tushar Girinath, KSPCB Chairman, Mr. Laxman and KSPCB Member Secretary Mr. G. V. Ranga Rao for their patient hearing and the subsequent directions, which provides immense relief to lakhs of apartment residents across Bengaluru.

Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF) organised "ApartmentRally", a peaceful formation of human chain of apartment residents across Bangalore to make our voice heard against the continuous harassment being imposed upon apartments. Over 10,000 came out across the city, including HSR Layout, Bellandur, Bannerghatta Road, Kanakapura Road, JP Nagar, Jayanagar, Wilson Garden, Old Airport Road, Old Madras Road, Mysore Road, Sanjay Nagar, RT Nagar, Malleshwaram, Hebbal etc.