Pattandur Lake choked, encroached & forgotten

Bengaluru: Nearly two decades ago, a joint legislature committee led by AT Ramaswamy exposed how land grabbers tried to usurp Pattandur Agrahara Lake by manipulating revenue records to mislead the judiciary.

Spread over 13 acres and 12 guntas, the lake, part of Survey No 54, is located in the heart of Bengaluru’s IT corridor, next to ECC Road. Once meant to recharge groundwater and mitigate floods, the lake now lies barren.

Though the 2007 report and citizen activism helped prevent further encroachments, officials have made no effort to revive the waterbody.

During a visit last Thursday, the lake showed no signs of water. It remains unfenced, despite the government releasing Rs 1 crore for fencing.

Stormwater inlets are blocked or diverted — allegedly by real estate developers — choking the lake. The bed is overrun with weeds and debris.

As per the Ramaswamy report, revenue records dating back to 1860 list Survey No 54 as ‘Sarkari Kere’. Historians have also discovered a 1,000-year-old inscription linking the lake to King Rajendra Chola, who gifted it in 1043.

The Ramaswamy report detailed how a fraudulent Land Reforms Tribunal order in December 1990 falsely claimed the lake belonged to KB Munivenkatappa. A civil court decreed in his favour in 1995. But when a tahsildar refused to mutate the records, citing the land’s lake status in government files, the matter reached the High Court.

In March 2007, the High Court ruled that the 1980 tribunal order, and about 70 pages of its register, was fabricated. It criticised officials, government advocates and even the Lokayukta for giving a clean chit, calling it a misuse of the judicial process to acquire government property.

When fresh encroachment attempts began, residents staged protests and filed PILs in 2017 and 2018. The state filed a fraud case and secured a stay order in 2018, but there have been no hearings since.

Sandeep Anirudhan, convener of Namma Whitefield, accused revenue officials of deliberately delaying the lake survey, stalling fencing work.

An activist points to a blocked stormwater drain near the lake.

He also blamed two major builders for dumping debris into the drain, blocking inlets, and flooding a school and orphanage last year.