Surveyors confirm Bengaluru was once a 'City of Thousand Lakes'

The district administration has identified all the 1,600-odd lakes for which Bengaluru was once known as the ‘City of Thousand Lakes’. But 85 per cent of these lakes are now completely dead as buildings and concrete structures stand on them.

For almost a month, the district administration was busy conducting the Gram Panchayat elections. As a result, clearance of encroachments on lakes and public land was put on hold. The silence of the district authorities gave an impression that the drive had stopped.

Sources in the district administration, however, said that in the last one month, surveyors were kept off election duty and tasked with surveying only the lakes. Fifty teams were formed of four surveyors each.

“We roped in 200 surveyors to survey all the government land. In the last one month, we had tasked them with measuring lake land. We already have a record of all the lakes, which number more than 1,600,” said a senior officer in the district administration.
The survey report will give detailed information about dead, semi-dead and surviving lakes as sought by the House committee on lakes, which is headed by K B Koliwad, the Congress MLA from Ranebennur.

The report is currently under preparation. It mentions all lakes, including the Dharmambudhi lake where the grand Majestic (Kempegowda bus station) stands now and the Jakkarayana Kere in Malleswaram where a Metro station has come up.

Eviction drive soon
Officials in the district authorities also hinted at removing encroachments on government land and lakes in the fourth week of June. With Gram Panchayat elections over, the drive is expected to go full steam ahead.