Local community engagement, environmental placemaking and stewardship by migrants: A case study of lake conservation in Bengaluru, India

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand dynamic processes of environmental stewardship in global urban cities, using an analytical lens of environmental placemaking. We demonstrate the importance of using the conceptual framework of environmental placemaking to understand newer forms of environmental consciousness, through a case study of the Indian megacity of Bengaluru – a heterogenous, multicultural urban landscape. Drawing on in- depth conversations with lake visitors and lake workers around three recently restored lakes in south-eastern Bengaluru – Kaikondrahalli, Kasavanahalli and Sowle Kere – we explore how these lakes are harnessed as ‘places’ by migrants to the city. Through representations of lakes as coupled ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ places, we explore the role of placemaking in shaping contemporary environmentalism and an interest in stewardship action for lake conservation. We argue that environmental placemaking leads to a fundamental transformation in human-nature conservation relationships in modern cities. We demonstrate how experiences of environmental placemaking are constituted by migrants into cities and are fundamental in making the city and local ecosystem a place of cohabitation, fostered by growing emotional attachment which stimulates a desire for environmental action.