How land mafia grabbed Chikka Kallasandra Lake

Chikka Kallasandra Lake once played a crucial role in helping balance excess water upstream and reducing flooding

Land sharks and powerful people with enormous political connections, together with a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, have almost killed the city's Chikka Kallasandra Lake, documents show. While encroachments grew, authorities paid little or no regard to orders passed by the highest court of the state.

What was once a major lake sprawled over 12 acres and 26 guntas irrigating hundreds of acres in the surroundings has now shrunk to a five-acre dirty, stinking waterbody.

Connected with Channel 303 of Vrishabhavathi River and Channel 210 of Koramangala Valley, Chikka Kallasandra Lake played a crucial role in helping balance excess water upstream and reducing flooding. Not any more.

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Located in Survey Number 76 at Chikka Kallasandra village in Uttarahalli hobli of Bengaluru South taluk, the lake has now been reduced to a wasteland surrounded by heaps of garbage, sewage water and illegal structures. To make things worse, the BBMP has built a road in the middle of the lake bed, giving encroachers easy access to their illegal properties.

Local residents who were the first to raise the red alert said the first signs of the lake's death had appeared in 1993-94. A resident of Chikkakallasandra village recalled how heavy rains during those two years had brought construction debris into the lake from nearby areas. The debris also helped set up the base for the kaccha road. A former deputy mayor, who had developed housing layouts, then legalised the road by getting it asphalted by the BBMP, the resident said.

Documents show that the tahsildars of Bengaluru South have known about the land encroachment since at least 2006 when cases were registered against 48 encroachers. But instead of acting, they sat on the files until 2014, only emboldening the encroachers. The inaction produced another 42 of them.

On November 7, 2014, the then tahsildar demolished several structures and cleared encroachments from seven acres after issuing notices to the encroachers. The crackdown salvaged seven acres of lake land. To prevent the freed land from future encroachments, stone posts and barbed fences were erected and a notice board was put up, according to the tahsildar.

In a letter to the government, the tahsildar said: "During this period, many persons continued to encroach upon the land following which a case was registered on 17-12-2014 in Subramanyapura police station." But sources say the land mafia backed by local politicians pressured the officers.

Another resident suggested that a corporator had played a "major role" in the encroachment and other illegalities. "In 2012 and 2013, those who had come to survey the land were threatened while one official was even locked up. The encroachments could be cleared in 2014 because the government didn't intervene," a resident who faced multiple threats told DH.

But almost all encroachers returned to the lake bed within the next few weeks. "This time, they had done the homework. Those who had got notices managed to get stay orders from courts while others influenced the officials through political means. Whenever someone complained about the encroachments, tahsildars cited the stay orders and evaded responsibility," the resident said.

Those who fought for the lake in the early days believe only court interventions can end the nexus between local officials and the land mafia, which is crucial to demolishing the illegal structures and recovering the lake land.

Resurvey lake land within six months: HC

On February 16, 2021, the high court quashed a notice issued by the tahsildar to M Venkataswamy for allegedly encroaching upon three acres and a 100X100-square foot area of Chikkakallasandra Lake. The court ordered the Bengaluru South tahsildar to complete a fresh procedure with spot inspection and mahazar “within six months”.

Disposing of a writ petition filed by Venkataswamy (WP54377/2014), the court noted that issuing a proper notice was an essential requirement of natural justice and that the tahsildar’s notice “does not disclose which are the documents — like spot inspection report or any other material — by which the tahsildar has come to the conclusion that petitioner had encroached government land”.

Asked about complying with the high court order, Bengaluru South Tahsildar C Ramalakshmaiah said he would look into it. “The ADLR (Additional Director of Land Records) has to do the survey. We need to check the file and understand whether the court order was obeyed,” he said.

A resident said no survey or mahazar was done in recent days. “From serving an erroneous notice to violating the court’s directions, officials know how to play this game,” he noted.

Illegal gains run into crores: Mahzar report

A mahzar report filed by the villagers of Chikkakallasandra has named several individuals, including one Lakshman who is accused of building illegal structures on the lake land.

"Unauthorised buildings named 'Kalakutira' have been built and rented for various activities through which he has earned crores of rupees," the report said, adding that the same individual also encroached upon government land in Kengeri hobli.

A resident called the mahzar report an understatement. "This shows that the encroachers are not poor homeless people trying to have a roof over their heads," he said.

According to the resident, such helpless people usually get thrown out by the authorities who want to show they are doing their job. He called for an audit to investigate the illegal gains made by all the 90 encroachers and said the same should be recovered in full. "That money should be used to restore the lake," he added.

Lake count down from 937 to 837

There has been an alarming rise in the extent of encroachment on the lake lands as documented by different committees set up by the government to estimate the lake grabs in Bengaluru and recover the land.

In 2009, a task force led by V Balasubramanian surveyed 842 lakes and found that a staggering 1,848 acres had been encroached upon by 2,488 people. The task force report put the total number of lakes in the city at 937.

By 2014, when the Koliwad committee was set up to study the lake encroachment, the number of lakes in the Bengaluru Urban district was reduced to 837. Even then, the committee said in its report that 4,533 acres of the lake land were under encroachment.

In 2019-20, the Bengaluru Urban administration did a fresh survey of the 837 lakes and put the number of encroached land at 4,500 acres, meaning no encroachments were cleared in the five years before.

Stormwater drains take the first blow

Encroachments on stormwater drains, seen as the first step in killing a waterbody, started appearing on the channels connecting Ittamadu and Chikkakallasandra lakes in the 1990s. As the drain got blocked in the following years, the lake just dried up, paving the way for encroachment.

In 2011, the BBMP promised the high court (in WP 31394/2009) it will clear the encroachments from stormwater drains. After looking into the zone-wise violations, the court ordered the BBMP to submit a compliance report on a monthly basis.

But the BBMP not only failed to clear the encroachments but also took up (in the case of Pattandur Agrahara) or allowed public and private agencies to do prohibited works in such areas.

Groundwater badly affected

The lake's disappearance has badly affected the groundwater. Residents who used to find water in open wells at depths of just 10 feet say it's now hard to see water even after drilling 1,200 feet into the ground.

"Between March and July, many families are forced to buy water from tankers. It's a tragedy to see an area that once had abundant water depend on tankers," Harish Kumar said.

"Chikka Kalllasandra Lake is located in the Padmanabhanagar assembly constituency, which I represent. I am committed to removing encroachments from it. Lakes and drains have to be recovered and restored. Clearing encroachments from this lake has been delayed because many encroachers have gone to court. We will try to convince them to vacate the place," said R Ashoka, Revenue Minister.

"We have cleared encroachments from 205 lakes. The high court has given directions (in WP 38401) to survey the waterbodies and free them from encroachments. The process takes time," J Manjunath, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban said.

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