Top companies in Byrasandra lake encroachers' list

A Karnataka High Court commissioner’s report has confirmed encroachment of Byrasandra lake and identified Bagmane Tech Park, Congnizant Technologies Pvt Ltd and Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) among the “occupiers” of the encroached lake area.

The commissioner, who submitted his report to the court recently, has identified 3.95 acres of encroachment on the lake, which is located on survey number 112 of Byrasandra village, Varthur hobli, in Bengaluru East taluk.

The total area of the lake has been identified as 12.21 acres, including the encroached portion, as per the report, a copy of which is available with DH.  The report has identified seven different “occupiers” of the encroached lake area. Another public sector undertaking Bharath Earth Movers Ltd is also listed.

Bagmane Tech Park, which is one of the prominent IT parks in Bengaluru and houses many top IT companies, has occupied 36 guntas of land (approximately 39,207 sqft).

A portion of the LRDE campus, a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, is located on the lake area too. It has occupied 19.5 guntas, as per the report.

The court had in January 2014 appointed Commissioner of Survey Settlement and Land Records (SSLR) as its commissioner and directed him to conduct a re-survey of the lake and submit a report.

The court had ordered the re-survey as some aggrieved private companies challenged a move by the revenue authorities to recover the encroached lake land in 2013. Encroachment of Byrasandra lake was first identified in 2007 by the then legislature committee on encroachment of government lands headed by A T Ramaswamy.

The court commissioner has prepared a sketch and a map of the lake, identifying the exact boundary. The report has identified and measured encroached and unencroached portions.

Encroachments have been marked on the spot as per the sketch. A prior notice was also issued to all the aggrieved persons before conducting the re-survey. The re-survey was carried out by the then SSLR commissioner Munish Moudgil.

Bengaluru Urban DCShankar said the re-survey has proved encroachment of the lake by Bagmane Tech Park and others.

“Nearly one acre of encroached vacant land of the lake has been already recovered. Now action should be taken on recovering areas where buildings are located. We have brought the issue to the notice of the legislature committee on lake encroachment headed by Speaker K B Koliwad. Action will be taken as per the committee’s directions,” Shankar said.