City of Gardens has lost more than three-fourths of its lakes.
By Amulya Nagaraj
BANGALORE: When I was a kid in the late ’80s, I remember playing by a lake that was a minute’s walk from my house. There wasn’t much of a “lake view” apartment or a walk around that stretch of water. But the water was relatively clean.
Today, that lake has given way to about 10 houses and a car garage. Till a few years ago, those houses, mostly built on encroached properties, were considered illegal. But in the past decade or so, the local authorities have legalized many of the structures and developments in the area in a desperate bid to bring some order.
As is often the case in India, it is possible that huge amounts of bribes were involved in the process. But what is certain is that those houses are here to stay and the lake is gone forever.
My neighborhood lake is only one of the hundreds of lakes destroyed in Bangalore’s “urbanization” race of the past few decades, which has resulted in a steep rise in population, putting pressure on infrastructure and natural resources.
The 2011 census revealed that the Greater Bangalore region is home to nearly 8.4 million, up from 2.9 million 1981. Since 1971, the population has increased by nearly 500 percent.
The population explosion has led to an invasion of the water spaces in a bid to make homes.
According to the U.S.-based Sherwood Institute, the region has lost more than three-fourths of its lakes over the years. At the moment, it has only 93 lakes, down from 400, says the nonprofit, which is working on a project to restore the city’s lakes, joining hands with the reigning Miss Earth Nicole Faria, a Bangalorean.
The fate of the lakes that have survived is not much better either. Their waters are mostly murky, covered with seasonal weeds and garbage.
Construction boom and encroachments are not the only threat to Bangalore’s lakes. In the absence of proper domestic waste water treatment system and waste management, lakes across the city have become places for draining sewage and dumping waste. Further degrading the lakes is the immersion idols during the festival season.
There is no better symbol for the sorry state of Bangalore’s lakes than the Ulsoor Lake, one of the region’s biggest, oldest and more famous lakes. Built by Kempegowda II and located in the heart of the city, the lake had conjured magic for Bangaloreans for most of its more than two centuries of existence.
New immigrants to the city would find it hard to grasp the significance the Ulsoor Lake had for generations of Bangaloreans. Today, this once-majestic lake, like dozens of other lesser-known lakes that once evoked similar civic pride, is a desolate stretch of water, after being used as a garbage dump for decades.
In the early 2000s, in the face of growing encroachments and waste-dumping, the Bangalore municipal corporation had issued an order prohibiting dumping of garbage into the Ulsoor Lake and allotted over 20 lakhs to clean it up.
Nearly a decade later, some amount of garbage still finds its way to the lake, as evidenced by the plastic and weed that float on its waters. Its stench during monsoons is enough to make one faint.
The local administration tried to farm some fishes in the lake in an attempt to clean it. But according to residents, the “fish mafia” steals these fish, rendering the process useless.
As part of its city beautification efforts, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, or BBMP – the administrative body responsible for the civic and infrastructural assets in the Greater Bangalore area – installed benches and partial walkways around Ulsoor lake and a few others. But, by evening, it remains a deserted area with few using those facilities.
Another major cause of pollution of Bangalore’s lakes is immersion of idols in the festival season. Weeks after Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival to honor Lord Ganesha occurring in the months of September or October, most of these lakes are filled with silt and filth as the idols are traditionally immersed in these lakes.
“It seems very exciting and beautiful to see the prayers and people believing in immersions and all,” said R. Viswanath, a septuagenarian who has lived around the Jayanagar area in the city for more than 40 years and uses the parks around the Yediyur Lake for his evening walks. “But nobody thinks of what impact it has on the lake and the environment. It is just a fun thing to them.”
As the fervor for the festival increases every year, the number and size of the idols immersed here is also rising. The authorities have tried to reduce the damage by cordoning off only certain areas of the lakes for immersion. This is separated from the rest of the lake for most part and the silt is then removed after the festival.
According to one report, there were over 50,000 Ganesha idols immersed in the Yediyur lake this year. More than 10 truckloads of silt are removed from some of the lakes each year.
P. Nagesh, a worker assigned the task of sweeping the paths around the lake, said more than 20 truckloads of idols were removed from the Yediyur Lake in south Bangalore this year.
Even though the idols are removed, the flowers and other offerings thrown into the lake with them continue to rot and remain a problem.
Most of the idols are taken back to potters and recycled to make idols for next year. But the paint used on them is toxic for the fishes and other lives in the tanks.
The festivals are only an annual problem for most lakes, big and small. The greater threat is Bangalore’s ever growing population that requires housing.
Unscrupulous developers have been steadily buying and encroaching properties around the lakes, building “lake view apartments” and constructing till there isn’t much of a lake left to view, as was the case with my neighborhood lake.
Bowing to pressure from environmentalists and concerned citizens, lately the local agencies have taken some measures to prevent further degradation of the lakes.
During heavy rains, sewage pipes often mix with storm water, flooding the lakes and polluting them. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board has promised to lay sewage lines on the periphery of more than 60 lakes to prevent sewage from flowing into them. However, it remains to be seen if the project will work out as planned.
Even though the track record of the state and city governments in protecting the lakes has been abysmal there are a few success stories. For instance, Sankey Tank, one of the major lakes in the western part of Bangalore, can be considered the poster child for what could happen if the city was more earnest in cleaning and restoring its lakes.
Along with the Ulsoor Lake and Yediyur Lake, the Tank was one of the three chosen to be restored in the early 2000s. All lakes had similar problems that were identified.
Today, Sankey Tank stands alone as the most beautiful among the three, with constant maintenance. The Tank, which was built in 1882, is surrounded by a beautiful park and walkway and has an adjoining swimming pool.
Though it continues to face sewage and garbage problems, compared to other major lakes in the city, the Sankey Tank is in a much better shape.
Some cynical Bangaloreans have an explanation for this: several political leaders, judges and influential people live in the neighborhood. (Global India Newswire)