Bengaluru Kattes Raise Questions About Better Footpaths
Bengaluru’s effort to reclaim footpaths has opened an unexpected debate over the future of the city’s traditional katte — raised platforms built around trees that have long doubled as informal places to sit, meet and rest. The Greater Bengaluru Authority’s removal of some such structures is aimed at improving pedestrian movement, but the response has raised a larger planning question: can footpaths become more walkable without eliminating the social spaces that make neighbourhoods liveable?
The immediate issue is straightforward. Footpaths are intended primarily for pedestrians, and structures that reduce their usable width can obstruct movement, particularly for wheelchair users, older residents, children and people carrying goods. Clearing physical barriers can therefore improve accessibility and make walking safer.But Bengaluru’s kattes occupy a more complicated place in the urban landscape. Traditionally built around mature trees, they have functioned as informal community spaces where residents can pause, talk and escape the heat. Their disappearance is consequently being viewed by some residents not simply as the removal of concrete but as the loss of a low-cost form of public space.
That tension exposes a weakness in conventional footpath design. A successful pedestrian street does not necessarily need to be a corridor where people are expected only to keep moving. Cities also require places where people can sit, wait, socialise and rest.The challenge for Bengaluru is to provide those functions without compromising the continuous pedestrian route. There is also an environmental dimension. Mature trees provide shade, reduce local heat and contribute to stormwater absorption.
Any redesign around tree bases therefore needs to protect root zones and soil conditions rather than treating trees as obstacles to be accommodated after the footpath has been laid. The answer may lie in separating movement space from resting space. Where a footpath is wide enough, planners could retain trees while redesigning surrounding areas with permeable surfaces and appropriately positioned seating outside the principal walking corridor. Narrow stretches, meanwhile, may genuinely require removal or redesign of platforms that create accessibility barriers. Such an approach would also help avoid treating every katte as identical. Some may be genuine obstructions; others may occupy space without significantly affecting pedestrian movement. Site-specific assessments involving accessibility audits, tree experts and local residents could establish which structures need modification and which can be integrated into improved street design. The debate matters because Bengaluru has already lost significant amounts of accessible public and community space during decades of rapid urbanisation. Public spaces support social interaction, recreation and neighbourhood identity alongside their environmental functions.
The city’s footpath-clearing exercise therefore presents an opportunity to move beyond a simple choice between encroachment removal and heritage preservation. Bengaluru can pursue uninterrupted, accessible walking routes while designing new, legitimate places to pause beneath its trees. The measure of a successful footpath should ultimately be whether everyone can use it safely — including those who need to stop, rest and participate in public life.
