When Bengaluru lakes go into limbo

“We used to go fishing sitting in coracles when the lake overflew,” says James Reddy, a resident of Marianna Palya, a layout next to Nagawara lake in Bengaluru. “We would swim across the lake and play cricket inside the lake when it dried up in summer,” he adds, recalling his childhood.

Those were the days when the lake was purely rainfed, and its water was potable. Birds thrived, while cows grazed nearby and drank the water from the lake. People used the same water to drink. The eastern part of Nagawara lake was a paddy field where people grew rice, using the lake water. Today the area hosts tech parks and industries.

Cut to the 2000s. Many residential layouts and buildings changed the equation. Rainwater stopped entering the lake, while sewage started entering it. The Outer Ring Road project consumed some land from the lake, shrinking it. The lake was still accessible to the public.

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Private partnership

At this point, a private company took over the maintenance after signing a lease with the Forest Department in order to develop recreational facilities. This was the fund-crunched city’s effort to handle the maintenance of the lake with private-public partnerships, where it leased the lake land for 15 years. Agara, Hebbala and KR Puram lakes were the other lakes that got into such agreements.

Nagawara got a water park, boating club and kids’ playing area. There was food served, and the entry was ticketed. The public nearby could not access the lake premises without paying.

In 2019, when the lease expired, the company went to court seeking an extension. The High Court asked the government to consider it. However, the Forest Department, in its letter to the government said that the firm flouted the tender conditions by separating the wetland abutting the lake by building a bund and obstructing the flow of water.

The lease was not extended, and an appeal in the Supreme Court was dismissed. Even though the lake is now with the Forest Department, post-Covid, the lake has been closed to the public totally.

Citizens in the area say encroachments have shrunk the lake’s size. BMRCL has sought a part of the lake’s wetland measuring 3,340 sqm for the construction of the Kempapura metro station. This wetland is the entry point of the drains that carry stormwater from Hebbal lake as well as from the R T Nagar residential area.

Back to square one

The stormwater drain from the R T Nagar area, filled with silt and garbage, and the stagnant water in the wetland have made the stench and mosquito menace unbearable. Some residents say the BWSSB water treatment plant is leaving water into the wetland, but the BWSSB denied it. Gangadhar, the BWSSB engineer in charge of sewage treatment, said the treated water goes to Chikkaballapura through underground pipes.

Any obstruction to the outflow of lake water could mean problem for the lake. This is a ticking timebomb, a disaster in making if not attended to soon, says a resident, preferring anonymity. “When the lake’s area shrinks in size, the lake might start inundating the nearby areas,” she said.

Navin Sharma, another resident who is a part of a citizen group, says locals living around the lake are ready to join hands with the government in order to rejuvenate the lake and maintain it.

The ball right now lies in the court of the Forest Department. When asked why the lake isn’t yet open to public, Ravi Shankar, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Bengaluru, cites an ongoing court case. On cleaning up the lake, he says: “We have written to the BBMP and the government asking for funds, since there are no funds provided, we could not do anything.”

The lake today does not have a jogging or walking path, while the facilities developed under ‘Lease, Operate and Transfer’ model by the company have gone defunct without maintenance. The lake that was supposed to be rejuvenated is back to square one, starting right where it was 15 years ago.

The communities living near the lake have lost access to it, and have no say yet on how the lake is going to be developed, though they are the immediate stakeholders of the good and bad developments that can happen to the lake.

Remnants of a fantasy park

Vengaiana Kere, popularly known as KR Puram Lake, was one of the three lakes leased out to private contractors in the year 2004.

Devaraju R, a resident who lives near the lake, recalls the glorious days when he used to swim in the lake as a child. “The lake water was clean in the 1980s. As the nearby areas developed the lake started receiving wastewater. Today wastewater from KR Puram, Bhatralli and TC Palya side reaches the lake,” he says.

In the 2000s the lake was given on lease to a company that undertook some beautification work and called it a fantasy park. The entry was ticketed and the lake had boating facilities, a kids’ zone, food courts, islands, jogging tracks, toilets and fishing facilities.

Purushottam, a resident of the area, says the area was closed to the public back then, and people had to pay to get into the lake premises, to access the facilities. Not even joggers and walkers were allowed to enter for free, he added.

A petition filed by Bengaluru-based Environment Support Group in 2008 explains: “The wetland areas in the lake are damaged, bridges are built, the entire lake area under the guise of recreation is converted into commercial exploitation hosting night parties. The nature of the development made in the lake is in conflict with the natural environment required for elegance and beauty of the lake.”

The lake’s maintenance went south after the lease expired five years ago. The lake is full of marsh and debris on the TC Palya side. Weed has covered up the lake, while mosquitoes make merry beneath. “Everything ranging from dead bodies of animals to construction debris gets dumped in the lake. The stench is unbearable for the residents nearby,” says Devaraju.

He adds that the lake must be having at least 3-5 feet of silt accumulated over the years, which reduces the water-absorbing capacity of the lake. TC Palya area gets flooded easily with every rain.

KSPCB’s July 2022 report on water quality monitoring classifies water in both Nagawara and KR Puram lakes as D category (fit for the propagation of wildlife and fisheries).

A visit by DH revealed some of the park infrastructure and paraphernalia intact, while some of it was broken and rusted. Everything was barricaded for the public, while the stands and boats remained broken and submerged in the lake.

The BWSSB has begun installing underground pipes to carry the treated wastewater to the KC Valley project. The BBMP received Rs 4 crore for rejuvenating this lake in December 2021. A foundation-stone laying ceremony was done in January, by Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj, but the work has been progressing at a snail’s pace.

The BBMP officials say they have started working on rejuvenating the 65-acre lake. “Rejuvenation is ongoing. Hence the lake is closed to the public right now,” said Ravi, Executive Engineer, BBMP. However, locals allege that the communities living around the lake were not consulted or their inputs were not considered.

“It was a nice lake, where we used to drink water as kids. Even today it can be salvaged but we don’t know what is happening inside the lake,” said a resident who had participated in the protests seeking the rejuvenation of the lake.