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Pollution Board’s two-year-long study reveals sorry state of affairs
82 pc of lakes in bad shape
S Lalitha, Bangalore, Nov 18, DHNS
After a nearly two-year long exhaustive study of major water bodies in and around the City, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has come out with this key finding: 82 pc of the lakes and tanks in the City are in conditions ranging from bad to worse.
The findings of the study entitled, ‘Present status of lakes and tanks in and around Bangalore’, carried out by the Central Environmental Laboratory of KSPCB, from January 2008 to October 2009 were made available on Tuesday.
In all, 55 lakes and tanks were analysed for the study and only ten of them were found to be in good condition, says Dr Lokeshwari, Scientific Officer at the laboratory, who carried out the study. Thirty-two of the lakes are in a condition that can be described as ‘bad’ while 13 are in ‘worst’ condition, she says.
The lakes earning the ignominy of being in the worst category are Nayandahalli tank, Madavara tank, Bellandur lake, Doddanakundi tank, Karihobanahalli lake, Dasarahalli tank, Varthur lake, Haralakunte lake, Somasundra Palya lake, Puttenahalli Lake, Veerapura tank, Annayappa tank and Uttarahalli Doraikere. Those in the bad category include Madiwala tank, Ulsoor lake, Agaram lake, Nagavara tank and Parapanna Agrahara lake.
There is an urgent need to rejuvenate them in order to maintain the delicate ecological balance in the City, observes Gowdar, Member Secretary of the board.
Elaborating on her study, Dr Lokeshwari said that the assessment was done on the basis of 15 parameters. The chief requirement for a lake to be considered in satisfactory condition was that the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level must be more than 4 milligrams/litre while its Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) less than 3 mg/litre.
“If the DO is found more than this limit or if the BOD is lesser than the permissible limit, it causes mass death of fish and promotes algal growth contaminating the water.”
The Scientific Officer also lamented the fact that 15 out of the lakes and tanks studied were developed under different funding programmes by various organisations.
“Unfortunately, seven of them have gone back to their bad condition due to poor maintenance,” she says.
Madiwala lake, Kempambudhi, Ulsoor, Byrasandra, Bellandur, Agaram and Nagavara lakes fall into this category.
Huge discharge of industrial wastes and sewage into rivers, ponds and lakes are the main reason why the water bodies were polluted. Pollutants like heavy metals, cyanides, boicides and other organic and inorganic compounds that prove toxic to aquatic organisms.
Slowly Banglore has been loosing its sheen on the continuum. All parties are the same. They have killed Bangalore to fill their pockets. Lakes are disappearing, trees are vanishing, dust everywhere in the atmosphere rising from the badly maintained roads, overflowing drainage, roads full of eye sores - Hoardings, Party flags, banners, Posters ..... We are defenitely progressing !!!
By: Prof. Rajasekara Murthy
On: 19 Nov 2009 04:23 pm
Karnataka Environment Research Foundation in collaboration with the Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science has been promoting an integrated and interagency and multidisciplinary management of urban lakes, resrvoirs, tanks for the past 20 odd years. Towards this end we have conducted conferences on lakes since 2000 under the series Lake-2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 at the Centre for Ecological Studies through the leadership of Dr. T.V. Ramachandra. We have made numerous reports to the Govt. of Karnataka highlighting ecological degradtion of these water bodies confirming the findings of present report by Dr. Lokeshwari. Karnataka Environment Resarch Foundation and the Centre for Ecological Sciences have promoted the concept of Ecosystem approach to manage these water bodies and vast knowledge basis exists to manage these water bodies but poor governance of the Govt. of Karnataka agencies (BBMP, Dept of Forests, BDA to mention a few) is mainly for the present state of affairs. Successive Governaments in Karnataka have miserably failed to address this poor state of affairs of the urban water bodies.Hope this report commissioned by one of the Govt. of Karnataka agencies awaken the policy makers before it is too late to reverse. Karnataka Environment Research Foundation and the Centre for Ecological Sciences would be more than happy to join ahnds with the Govt. of Karnataka in this effort.
Prof. Rajasekara Murthy
Scientist Emeritus, Environment Canada
Thanks you very much for your upodate and I appreciate there are intellectuals who care.
Does it make a difference to these distructive attitudes of these imbecile/retarded politicians and the opportunist bureaucracy??.
How to bell the cat?
Cheers !!! the Real estate people and the local goonda plotician will be celebrating on this report. They have the opportunity to manipulate the records and convert them into sites/ appartment etc. There is no one organisation or department in this Govt to take care or draft and emergency policy to take care of the water bodies nor do they have any experience to handle or be responsible to it. BBMP itself is a CESS POOL.
OK.Now that there is a clear evidence and outcome frm study. Can we see the action from BBMP soon.
Citizens are awaiting for action please.....
Bharat mata ki jai
So now that the study is done, which is a good move forwarded though I have my reservaion on the time it took to do this, what is the next plan? wait for them to dry out so that some onw will encroach on it and do some illegal construction? wake up govt and crack the whip and why dont you privatise the maintenance?