What’s an Anaconda Doing on the Streets of Bengaluru?

To bring people’s attention to civic issues, a Bengaluru NGO released an anaconda on the streets. Here’s the story.

Bengaluru potholes now appear to be so deep, that they are spawning all kinds of monsters, which well, have the potential to scare the hell out of someone caught unaware.

In what has now become a series of attempts to embarrass the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike into taking the quality of roads seriously, a civic group in the city has installed an anaconda in Yeshwanthpur.

The Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), a group working for the betterment of the city, decided to call the city’s attention to the issue of increasing potholes.

There is humour, art, sarcasm in the craft, but more importantly, there is a deeper message in it that we are trying to deliver.
— Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation

It took two days for Chitrakala Parishath graduate Pushparaj to complete the giant snake and install it on Sunday in the Yeshwanthpur market.

He says that residents are worried about the increasing water-logging in Bengaluru due to lack of proper drainage systems. As a result, there has been a rise in diseases like malaria and dengue as stagnant water provides breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Installing the anaconda wasn’t an easy task as local goons tried to intimidate the artist and NBF members. Sridhar says that the goons stamped on the artwork and damaged it, but the presence of media forced them to retreat. The police requested the team to relocate the artwork.

The installation drew the attention of passers-by, especially the children who were fascinated by a giant anaconda lying in the middle of busy market area. Many engaged with the team, showing interest in participating in debates and discussion to solve Bengaluru’s problems, he adds.

On social media too, people were rather helpful with suggestions – several people said that there was plenty of scope for hippopotamuses, dinosaurs and even a Loch Ness monster to live comfortably in the gigantic water-filled pot-holes.

There has been an overwhelming demand for anacondas and people are giving locations across the city for such installations.
— Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation

The group is planning to install a “manhole” in Uttarahalli to draw attention to how manholes can be a death trap when they are left uncovered.

(The story originally appeared in The News Minute)