Venkateshwara slum is one of the slum which is located besides the Mysore road, near the Bytarayanapura. The slum is located in Vijayanagara ward.

The term slum has diverse connotations across different international context and even across different regions in a given country.

Since it first appeared in 1820s the word slum has been used to identify poorest quality housing, most unsanitary conditions places for crime and drug abuse. Moreover, in developing countries, the word lacks the critical and original connotation and simply refers to lower quality or informal housing (UN-Habitat, 2003). The lack of precise definition of the concept slum contributes to the lack of effective and tailored policy response. Even through slums show some commonalities they have diverse characteristics and they are defined differently in different countries making international comparisons and global monitoring of intervention plans difficult.

Slums are becoming inevitable phenomenon of the urban fabric in the developing world. In the year 2001, it was estimated that one third of the world’s urban population or nearly 1.5 billion people, live in slum areas. Six percent of the urban populations in developed regions are slum dweller. Similarly, in developing regions and least developed countries, the figure goes up to forty three and seventy eight percent respectively. Slum areas are characterized by mainly poor quality housing, lack of access to safe water and sanitation, overcrowded living environment and insecure tenure states. Slums are formed because of a number of forces. Among these, rapid rural to urban migration, increasing urban poverty and income inequality and lack of affordable housing contribute to the creation and proliferation of slums.

The Karnataka slum clearance board denotes slum from a legal point of view i.e., people who have occupied land which they have no legal rights, while different state laws have adopted different definitions of the word slum.

Figure 1

Slums have grown in Bangalore city from its olden times but the magnitude of slums with issues have started when Bangalore has got its city status. Slums are more in number in intermediary and fringe of the city which has affected Bangalore city Image.

The primary data has been collected through questionnaire and interview method from slum dwellers of Bangalore city. The data has also been collected through GPS. Secondary data has been collected from the census of India.

Bangalore city is the crucial instrument in Karnataka’s engagement with the regional economy; yet the pitfalls of its rapid growth of slums are observable. Failure to ensure clearance of slums will harm the very assets which have forget the city’s achievement. As the city situates among the belt of tourist and cultural heritage face the burden of an increasing number of slums number and their population. The planning of the city can take into account the findings from this research.

The central, northern and eastern portions of the Bangalore Metropolitan Region are characterized by an open countryside consisting of vast stretches of undulating plains. The uplands are often bare or covered with low scrub jungles and the low lands are dotted with series of irrigation tanks. It represents an uplifted peneplain at an elevation of 900 meters. The surface has been dissected on the western and southern parts of the study unit giving rise to a broken and rugged topography. In the west, the terrain is rugged and broken and is composed of a succession of hills and valleys intersected by rocks and rapid streams with sandy beds. In the south, the hills get closer. The lands are covered with denser vegetation and the general level declines as one moves south towards the Cauvery. A range of hills from Kanakapura in the south to Nijagal in the north formed of coarse grained granite is a prominent topographic features.

The drainage of Bangalore Metropolitan Region radiates from high grounds in radial pattern. The Bangalore city has three important valleys are those of Hebal, Vrishabhavati and Koramangala or Challaghatta and Naravanaholla. The Bangalore Metropolitan Region have been covered by four river basins like Arkavati, Kanva, Vrishabhavathi, Dakshina pinakini.

The central part of Bangalore is covered by loamy skeletal soil sandy soil in combination. Towards south the soil is more coarse loamy and coarse loamy silt. Toward the southernmost it is more sandy skeletal. Pokey land is found in the south, south east and east. Towards east, hilly ranges are present. More of clayey and clayey loamy soil is found here. Clayey soil is found in a scattered pattern in central and northern part of Bangalore. Fine loamy and coarse soil is found towards the north east. Bangalore soil is favourable for agriculture except the few rugged terrains in the east and south east.

The climate of the study area is salubrious and very agreeable. It is free from extremes. The climate of the Bangalore Metropolitan Region is classed as the seasonally dry tropical savanna climate, with four main seasons.

The cold weather season is a period of generally fine cool weather with mainly clear blue skies. It is a period of little or no rainfall. The hot weather season is a dry month with low humidity. April and may are the months of considerable thunderstorm activity. The south west monsoon season is a moist, cloudy and rainy period. It is also a period of fairly strong and steady winds, blowing from the south west to west. The north east monsoon from October is also a moist rainy period but with slightly less clouding. Wind are weaker and blow from east-north east to north east. The change in wind direction from west-south west to east-north east between September and early October is very characteristic.

Slums in BMR have their own peculiarities. They certainly differed from each other in terms of location, size of population and background. But they also held something in common.

The slum dwellers should be seen not just as the beneficiaries, but as the primary stakeholders. Public policies would thereby have to accept human beings as the focal point of development and reconsider their current thrust on the physical built environment.