<div>It was Albert Einstein who said, “Doing the same experiment under the same conditions again and again and again and expecting a different result each time, is schizophrenic.” Nothing else proves this point better than the “restoration of lakes” which is going on in Bengaluru for over 20 years.<br /><br />Even now, in the Revenue Department records, the Bangalore Urban district has 937 lakes with 26,000 acres of water spread area. Of this, according to the Task Force Report on Encroachment of Public Lands-2011, 1,800 acres of tank bed land was under encroachment by 2,488 persons. The report was shelved by the then government which would not even print it. <br /><br />In the 1790s, the British captain sent by Governor General of the British East India Company Lord Cornwallis to find a northern route to Tipu’s Seringapatam (now Srirangapatna), reached Bangalore and described it as “The Land of a Thousand Lakes”. Unlike most other cities in the world, Bengaluru is not on the banks of a perennial river. Therefore, Kempe Gowda who established the city as a trading post in 1537, constructed over 200 tanks and his son Immadi Kempe Gowda another 200 and Kempe Gowda III yet more. <br /><br />Later, Chief Engineer General Richard Hieram Sankey, after whom the Sankey Tank is named, completed the system of Cascading of Tanks in the 1860s, connecting 1,000 tanks from upper levels to lower levels by Raja Kaluves which were of 30 feet width. The city’s normal annual rainfall of about 800 mm was stored in these man-made tanks for irrigation and drinking water and responsible largely for its salubrious climate. <br /><br />The lakes constructed in 500 years have been destroyed in 50 years after independence. The land mafia, political leaders, bureaucracy and the rich and famous have callously encroached upon the tank beds and have constructed multi-storied apartments, houses and commercial complexes. In an act of stupid mockery, the government breached the Dharmabudhi tank built by Kempe Gowda and mindlessly named it Kempe Gowda Central Bus Terminus.<br /><br />The recent National Green Tribunal order banning use of 75 metres along the outer periphery of the lakes and retaining it as a buffer zone for wetlands, strangely, does not cover the encroachments inside the lakes. Most of the encroachments are inside the periphery of the lakes. <br /><br />So, construction in buffer zone is not okay but tank bed encroachment is okay, seems to be the judicial decision! Better lock the barn after the horses have bolted. Besides, the NGT order is said to be only prospective in effect so that in Karnataka, where all akrama can become sakrama and the law-abiding persons are just fools.<br /><br />The High Court of Karnataka in 2010 constituted a Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of a sitting judge of the High Court for restoration of lakes. The Committee proposed rejuvenation of 189 lakes by 2014 at a cost of Rs 5,973 crore of which the funding of Rs 4,286 crore was not even tied up. The High Court designated the BDA and BBMP, the usual suspects, to rejuvenate these lakes. The Monitoring Committee is now defunct as these two institutions have neither the funds nor the capacity to rejuvenate any lakes. <br /><br />The plan for “restoration” of lakes by BDA and BBMP consists of putting up a chain-link fence on the existing lake boundary, paving a jogging path and constructing a “bird sanctuary” in the middle of the lake. It is not realised that without diverting the sewage entering the lake, the lake will remain a cesspool. The civil works costing an average of Rs 4 crore per lake helps only the contractors and their patrons in BBMP and BDA.<br /><br />The BDA, the BBMP and other state government institutions have no capacity to save the lakes. On the other hand, it is well known that out of the 5,000 acres the defence ministry-owned in Bengaluru, not an inch has been encroached upon. <br /><br />Therefore, the only agency having the capacity to protect the lakes is the army as they have the discipline and command-control system and brook no interference from pressure groups. No doubt the Defence Ministry, from Bofors to Westland, is not unknown to scandals at upper echelons. But the rank and file on the ground has the discipline to implement a task given to them. <br /><br />Coordination panel<br /><br />The army does not have the legal power to remove encroachment by themselves which vests in the government agencies. However, following the legal procedure of issuing notices and orders, the Revenue Department which owns the lakes, can appoint army personnel to execute the orders. <br /><br />Already there is an Army-State Government Coordination Committee to solve mutual problems. For the specific purpose of lakes, a Task Force can be formed with the highest Defence Ministry official in Bengaluru and the chief secretary co-chairing the Task Force. <br /><br />Under the Task Force, an Executive Committee of both the Defence Ministry officials and the state government can be formed which would meet frequently to implement the lake protection work. No doubt, the Central and state governments have to agree to such an arrangement. For saving Bengaluru’s lake system, it will be a win-win game. <br /><br />The important point is, if we continue to rely upon the discredited, decrepit and degenerate existing institutions, the 400 remaining lakes and 850 km Rajakaluves will totally disappear courtesy the greed of the unholy triumvirate of real estate mafia, netas and the bureaucracy. It does not require an Einstein but any citizen knows that the BDA, BBMP and BWSSB have long become instruments of vested interests.<br />With the lakes under army’s control, General Richard Hieram Sankey who perfected Bangalore’s Cascading of Lakes System can finally rest in peace. Otherwise, half of Bengaluru will have to be evacuated in 10 years’ time.<br /><br /><em>(The writer is former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka)</em><br /><br /></div>
<div>It was Albert Einstein who said, “Doing the same experiment under the same conditions again and again and again and expecting a different result each time, is schizophrenic.” Nothing else proves this point better than the “restoration of lakes” which is going on in Bengaluru for over 20 years.<br /><br />Even now, in the Revenue Department records, the Bangalore Urban district has 937 lakes with 26,000 acres of water spread area. Of this, according to the Task Force Report on Encroachment of Public Lands-2011, 1,800 acres of tank bed land was under encroachment by 2,488 persons. The report was shelved by the then government which would not even print it. <br /><br />In the 1790s, the British captain sent by Governor General of the British East India Company Lord Cornwallis to find a northern route to Tipu’s Seringapatam (now Srirangapatna), reached Bangalore and described it as “The Land of a Thousand Lakes”. Unlike most other cities in the world, Bengaluru is not on the banks of a perennial river. Therefore, Kempe Gowda who established the city as a trading post in 1537, constructed over 200 tanks and his son Immadi Kempe Gowda another 200 and Kempe Gowda III yet more. <br /><br />Later, Chief Engineer General Richard Hieram Sankey, after whom the Sankey Tank is named, completed the system of Cascading of Tanks in the 1860s, connecting 1,000 tanks from upper levels to lower levels by Raja Kaluves which were of 30 feet width. The city’s normal annual rainfall of about 800 mm was stored in these man-made tanks for irrigation and drinking water and responsible largely for its salubrious climate. <br /><br />The lakes constructed in 500 years have been destroyed in 50 years after independence. The land mafia, political leaders, bureaucracy and the rich and famous have callously encroached upon the tank beds and have constructed multi-storied apartments, houses and commercial complexes. In an act of stupid mockery, the government breached the Dharmabudhi tank built by Kempe Gowda and mindlessly named it Kempe Gowda Central Bus Terminus.<br /><br />The recent National Green Tribunal order banning use of 75 metres along the outer periphery of the lakes and retaining it as a buffer zone for wetlands, strangely, does not cover the encroachments inside the lakes. Most of the encroachments are inside the periphery of the lakes. <br /><br />So, construction in buffer zone is not okay but tank bed encroachment is okay, seems to be the judicial decision! Better lock the barn after the horses have bolted. Besides, the NGT order is said to be only prospective in effect so that in Karnataka, where all akrama can become sakrama and the law-abiding persons are just fools.<br /><br />The High Court of Karnataka in 2010 constituted a Monitoring Committee under the chairmanship of a sitting judge of the High Court for restoration of lakes. The Committee proposed rejuvenation of 189 lakes by 2014 at a cost of Rs 5,973 crore of which the funding of Rs 4,286 crore was not even tied up. The High Court designated the BDA and BBMP, the usual suspects, to rejuvenate these lakes. The Monitoring Committee is now defunct as these two institutions have neither the funds nor the capacity to rejuvenate any lakes. <br /><br />The plan for “restoration” of lakes by BDA and BBMP consists of putting up a chain-link fence on the existing lake boundary, paving a jogging path and constructing a “bird sanctuary” in the middle of the lake. It is not realised that without diverting the sewage entering the lake, the lake will remain a cesspool. The civil works costing an average of Rs 4 crore per lake helps only the contractors and their patrons in BBMP and BDA.<br /><br />The BDA, the BBMP and other state government institutions have no capacity to save the lakes. On the other hand, it is well known that out of the 5,000 acres the defence ministry-owned in Bengaluru, not an inch has been encroached upon. <br /><br />Therefore, the only agency having the capacity to protect the lakes is the army as they have the discipline and command-control system and brook no interference from pressure groups. No doubt the Defence Ministry, from Bofors to Westland, is not unknown to scandals at upper echelons. But the rank and file on the ground has the discipline to implement a task given to them. <br /><br />Coordination panel<br /><br />The army does not have the legal power to remove encroachment by themselves which vests in the government agencies. However, following the legal procedure of issuing notices and orders, the Revenue Department which owns the lakes, can appoint army personnel to execute the orders. <br /><br />Already there is an Army-State Government Coordination Committee to solve mutual problems. For the specific purpose of lakes, a Task Force can be formed with the highest Defence Ministry official in Bengaluru and the chief secretary co-chairing the Task Force. <br /><br />Under the Task Force, an Executive Committee of both the Defence Ministry officials and the state government can be formed which would meet frequently to implement the lake protection work. No doubt, the Central and state governments have to agree to such an arrangement. For saving Bengaluru’s lake system, it will be a win-win game. <br /><br />The important point is, if we continue to rely upon the discredited, decrepit and degenerate existing institutions, the 400 remaining lakes and 850 km Rajakaluves will totally disappear courtesy the greed of the unholy triumvirate of real estate mafia, netas and the bureaucracy. It does not require an Einstein but any citizen knows that the BDA, BBMP and BWSSB have long become instruments of vested interests.<br />With the lakes under army’s control, General Richard Hieram Sankey who perfected Bangalore’s Cascading of Lakes System can finally rest in peace. Otherwise, half of Bengaluru will have to be evacuated in 10 years’ time.<br /><br /><em>(The writer is former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka)</em><br /><br /></div>
