Large development projects siphoning resources: BIAL - A case study
From Maps4change
Large Development Projects Siphoning Resources: BIAL- A Case Study. LDP are contentious markers of progress of human societies. This is especially true in developing countries– such as India, where large segments of population depend on natural resources for sustaining life. In such instances, LDP’s primary role is to siphon away basic resources previously used for sustaining livelihoods and divert these into high end service facilities for the privilege class. Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) – a new mega project of the Karnataka State Government, in partnership with outside agencies, serves to illustrate this.
Project
To overlay a map of the current BIAL facility and the Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAAPA) on the corporation maps of Devanahalli taluk (214 villages), Doddabalapur taluk (67 villages) in the Bangalore Rural district and Bangalore North Urban district (66 villages) that come under this development scheme. The current extent and markings of the airport and big projects around it are available on Wikimapia. The hard and soft copy of the village boundaries in the region have been acquired from the Corporation office, Bangalore. Overlaying the two should clearly show the drastic shift in resources ownerships – from livelihood driven people based, to assets in hands of large corporations for profiteering purposes.
Work in Progress
I was able to overlay the Google Earth satellite image of Devanahalli with a scaled digitised version of taluk map of the region with village boundaries and markings...I will now attempt participatory mapping by taking the village to the displaced communities and having them fill it out with what once more--add content in terms of video testimonials, paper mappings of village structure life and resources available. Also do a comparative study of what was to where these people have ended up? better or worse than before? losses to individuals, societies, disappearing livelihoods, cultures? the final map will surely reveal something - who gained what and who lost what....
Arati
