City Pulse

Sarjapur in south Bengaluru is home to 26 of Bengaluru’s 81 lakes. Most of these lakes, concentrated within a radius of 7km, are dying. The largest is spread over 271 acres. While carrying out a counting exercise for lakes in the area a couple of years ago, local residents decided to take up an initiative to save the lakes and to revive them by clearing them of debris.

Over the last 30 years, the number of lakes in the city shrunk by 30 per cent — from 285 in the early 1970s to just 194 in 2006, according to the Energy and Wetlands Research Group at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Sarjapur residents were worried about the state government’s decision to de-notify 20 of these lakes and put some of them up for sale. However, about a month ago, the Karnataka government transferred the lakes from the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA) to the irrigation department and the de-notification is no more applicable.

The Sarjapura Residents’ Welfare Association (SRWA), with the support of the gram panchayat, is appointing lake wardens who will take charge of preserving the lakes and support activities that are part of the revival plan. The lake wardens will comprise RWA members, villagers, members of the elected body of gram panchayat, and some lake enthusiasts in the area.

“Ram Prasad, the convener of Friends of Lakes, and Shridhar Pabbisetty, CEO of Namma Bengaluru Foundation, visited the lakes in Sarjapur and advised us to appoint lake wardens and include villagers from the area in the project. Now, every month we celebrate Kere Habba (lake festival) to create awareness among the villagers about the importance of the lakes and their revival,” said Joy V R, secretary of the SRWA.

Most of the lakes in Sarjapur don’t have any bunds or any kind of protection. So, to start with, the residents want to install official boards at all the lakes to avoid any kind of disputes or encroachment. They also plan to plant more trees in order to save the biodiversity of the lakes, including the Indian grey hornbill. They have also made a khaldari (a foot trail) to enable villagers to commute between the villages and their fields. The initiative has attracted the attention of the local gram panchayat and the authorities are supporting the revival work by providing funds.

Unlike many other lakes in the city, the Sarjapur lakes don’t have a problem of inflow of sewage, but there are some reports of illegal activities around them. “The lake beds are being dug-up for sand, which is being siphoned off for commercial purposes. The authorities haven’t taken any action against those carrying out these illegal activities,” says Madhuri Subbarao, co-founder of Friends of Lakes. The residents, however, say that the sand is being taken by the farmers for agriculture purposes, which is not illegal.

“The biodiversity in these lakes is so good that you can see glimpses of the old Bangalore in Sarjapur. Last time we did a recce of the lakes, we found the Indian grey hornbill, which is very rare in the city,” said Vijay Nishanth, an urban conservationist from the area. The sighting of the bird and other biodiversity in the area has provided a further impetus to the residents and environmentalists to work on revival of the lakes.

Picture Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle