Merlin Francis ● BANGALORE

Usha Rajagopalan, the facebehind the rejuvenated Putte-nahalli lake, believes theywere very lucky to identify, inrecord time, which agencywas in charge of the water-body. “It only took us a yearand a half,” she says. In thisQ&A, Rajagopalan shares whatit takes to save a lake.

What was the most difficultpart of reviving and rejuve-nating the Puttenahallilake?It was finding out who was re-sponsible for lake manage-

ment. My friends and I whoset out to ‘save our lake’ knewthat lakes were usually takencare of by the BDA, BBMP andforest department. We didn'tknow which agency was ac-tually in charge of it. With helpof people like Ashwin Mahesh,who was my neighbour, wewere lucky to do it in recordtime. It only took us a year anda half. Normally, it takes a lotmore time. After that, thingswent on smoothly.

Only a year and a half?This was record time. You haveto understand that restoring alake takes time. You have to

move papers, meet people,and work with governmentagencies. We started work in2008. It has been close to fiveyears and we still have a longway to go.

You still have a goal?Our goal is to fill the lakewith clear rainwater, aquaticlife and birds. Even thoughthere is very little water inthe lake as last year's mon-soon was poor, and our lakeis covered with a weed calledSalvania molasta. We sawthree woolynecked storksand a marsh harrier. This iswhat lake groups will get

once they begin their own attempts.

And what lessons would youhave for those who want toemulate your work?For us, it was getting en-croachers removed. For manylake groups, it will be findingout what their lake boundaryis. The tahsildar is the instru-ment here. We have 1 acre and5 guntas of lake land en-croached upon by 110 hous-es. Lakes, forests and openspaces are like no man's land.If the government does not re-move encroachers as soon asthey come, they will contin-

ue to grow, in spite of the lakebeing restored. You will not beable to maintain the lake as

long as you cannot enclose thelake area and as long as thereare encroachers.

What is the community'srole in saving a lake?Everything. Community par-ticipation is necessary tomaintain the lake. The BBMPwill rejuvenate it, and thistakes money. Communities,even if it is just five peoplelike us (with one personworking out of Mumbai),need to be committed inmaintaining a lake. The onlyproblem the BBMP has is theydo not have the adequate per-sonnel to do this.

Can ordinary people dothis? Or does it need super-human powers?We are not magicians. All weneed are a few committedpeople. Identify neighbourswho are experts. We had a

young lady, an expert on but-terflies come all the way fromBanashankari to help us de-cide what kinds of shrubsneeded to be planted in orderto attract more butterflies. Wehave another person who ishelping us pump water fromthe lake to water the plants onthe lake bed at a minimal cost.The BBMP had suggested wepump water from theborewell.

Everyone has ideas, we justneed people who say 'we'llhelp'. We are doing this withfive people. With a group of20-30, you can save the world.

merlin.francis@dnaindia.net

With a group of 20-30 people, you can save the world

First person

Lakes, forests and openspaces are like noman's land. If thegovernment does notremove encroachers assoon as they come,they will continue togrow, in spite of thelake being restored

If you are contemplating on observing World Wetlands Day today, you will obviously start ruminating about the morass that our lakes have degenerated into. The state of affairs is well known, and the villains of the piece are not hard to identify.

Yet, environmental conservation must start with the people, and remain community-driven. So, come...

...LET’S SAVE OUR LAKES...LET’S SAVE OUR LAKESSubir Ghosh ● BANGALORE

When British novelist EMForster described Chicago in aletter thus: “Chicago--is--ohwell a façade of skyscrapersfacing a lake, and behind thefaçade every type of dubious-ness,” he could well have beentoday penning the epitaph ofBangalore's lakes. Themetaphor would have rungominously true for this city.

Agreed, Bangalore's lakesare not all gone yet, but thethreats posed by biotic andcommercial pressures to wipethem off the map are nowmore imposing than they werewhen groups of concerned cit-izens made small, but stridentbids to save the lakes.

The state of the city's lakesis well known and document-ed; recounting them on theoccasion of World WetlandsDay would be a farce. Butwhat is worth delving into isthe issue of community par-ticipation and initiatives in sal-vaging the lungs of the city. Af-ter all, the Ramsar Convention(see: At a glance) keeps reit-erating the need to involve lo-cal communities in savingwetlands from destruction.And not without reason; theconcept of conservation hasover the years taken a para-digm shift from the earliertop-down, elitist approach to-wards being more communi-ty-driven now. Certainly, onpaper.

So, if the lakes are still im-periled, have citizens failed inprotecting them?

The response from Leo Sal-danha of Environment Sup-port Group (ESG) is an em-phatic “no.” Saldanha wouldknow -- he has been involvedin lake protection campaignsfrom the beginning. He ar-gues, “Communities almosteverywhere are begging to beinvolved in protecting localwaterbodies. They have a di-rect and tangible benefit in do-ing so. Unfortunately, highlycentralised structures of gov-ernance have denied themstatutory opportunities of be-ing involved, including thehare-brained schemes of theprivatisation of waterbodies,which actually distance com-munities from protectinglakes.”

Suresh Heblikar of Eco-Watch agrees, and goes on topoint out, “The original com-munities who lived in Banga-lore didn't vandalise the lakes.They knew their value. Manylakes were drinking watersources. These communitiesgrew fruits, flowers and veg-etables using lake water. A lotof land under agriculture wasirrigated by these lakes. In oth-er words, agricultural and hor-ticultural areas almost func-tioned like the watershed ofBangalore. Consequently, thegroundwater recharge oc-curred during monsoons .”

To make his point, Saldan-ha draws on the example ofHebbal lake. It was compre-hensively rehabilitated by theforest department with Nor-wegian aid. The work was soimpressive that the primeminister of Norway even paida visit. The lake was main-tained jointly by the depart-ment and local communities.The best indicator of their suc-cess was that bird life sprungback, with up to 100 speciesmaking it their home.

The hard work put in by thecommunities were conspicu-ous and lauded -- till, the LakeDevelopment Authority (LDA)put a spanner in the works.The authority “privatised thelake and handed it over to theOberois. The first thing the lat-ter did was to tear off all thewetlands and foreshore vege-tation, thus destroying thebreeding habitats of birds. Theengineers were conditionedby 'aesthetic demands' anddidn't even think twice whenthey destroyed the construct-ed wetlands: several acres ofthe waterspread that were de-liberately planted with aquat-ic vegetation to act as a livingwater treatment system andfilter out the sewage flowinginto the lake,” rues Saldanha.

Conservationists are unan-imous in telling you who thebad guys have been and whataccentuated the decay. Con-tinues Heblikar, “This vibrantecological system of the lakeswent on deteriorating as thecity began to to grow. Thecoming in of the IT sector has-tened this.The BBMP, BDA,KSPCB and state urban devel-opment department con-tributed their mite in destroy-ing the wetlands and the lakes,as these ecosystems becameunattractive and less valuablein comparison to the grandplan of metropolitan Banga-lore. What, with the designs ofan international airport, longelevated roads, flyovers, giantcorporate offices, malls, etc,embellishing the image ofBangalore as a silicon city andimagining the metropolis onthe global map.”

The soaring dreams and thegrandiose plans have clearly

become a nightmarish reality.But have people been broughtdown to the real world?

Saldanha is optimistic andgoes beyond perfunctory lipservice practices, “Clearly,people want to be involved inprotecting their lakes, parks,open spaces, and thus securea reasonably good quality oflife for all. Recently, the Kar-nataka High Court took a mo-mentous decision and forcedthe government to constituteward committees in all urbanareas. With such people-cen-tred forums beginning tofunction, there is a very highprobability that we will findcitizen involvement chan-nelled for a variety of pro-gressive efforts such as lakeconservation, garbage man-agement, etc, and not merelysettle down to ritually organ-

ising some festival-basedcommunity action.”

One of the biggest successstories of community-drivenaction was the rejuvenation ofthe Puttenahalli lake. Usha Ra-jagopalan, chairperson of thePuttenahalli NeighbourhoodLake Improvement Trust,made it possible with a coregroup of five persons. As Ra-jagopalan avers, “With a groupof 20-30, you can save theworld.” (see: First Person).

The Puttenahalli story wenton to enjoy a sort of cult sta-tus. Such inspirational valuescoupled with the backdrop offormation of ward commit-tees holds promise. Anotherimportant development, ac-cording to Saldanha, has beenthe directive of the high courtto constitute a committee ofvarious agencies, which sub-

sequently came up with rec-ommendations and guidelinesto protect the lakes of Banga-lore. The court directive camein response to a public inter-est litigation filed by ESG.

Saldanha underlines, “Therecommendations are ex-traordinarily progressive,mandate public involvementin lake protection, promoteecological methods to reha-bilitate lakes and their canalsand not resort to engineeringmethods which create sterilewaterbodies. This report wasaccepted by the court and itsrecommendations mademandatory for all lake and rajakaluve protection effortsacross the state, not only Ban-galore.

“The court proceeded to in-stitute district level lake pro-tection committees in collab-

oration with district legal serv-ices committees, and directedthe setting up of an apex statelevel lake protection authori-ty with powers to review com-plaints of pollution, encroach-ment and diversion, and passnecessary orders. Unfortu-nately, 10 months after this or-der was issued by the highcourt, the Karnataka govern-ment is yet to constitute theseauthorities, and is thus in con-tempt of court.”

Even when one talks of suc-cess stories and positive de-velopments, the bad guyskeep creeping into the picture.Saldanha offers a reason, “Thisis an urban problem, as we aredistanced from our naturalworld. In rural areas, peopleknow the importance of wa-terbodies, how to desilt themperiodically, and protect them.

But, decades of centralisedcontrol and management oflakes has distanced people(from their lakes). It is criticalthat we get the people backinto lake protection, manage-ment and wise use.

“Our education processmust be reinvented to active-ly engage with such matters,as it is critical to our life andlivelihoods. What's the pointon talking about lakes in NorthAmerica or Europe when wefail to appreciate the impor-tance of those in our back-yard? Our lakes have extraor-dinary scope to support bio-diversity (not only birds), andcontribute to our water andecological security. “

That's how it should be.That's how it will, hopefully, be.

(with inputs from Merlin Francis)subir.ghosh@dnaindia.net

At a GLANCEWWoorrlldd WWeettllaannddss DDaayy isobserved on February 2every year. It marks thedate of the signing of theConvention on Wetlands(called RamsarConvention) on February2, 1971, in the Iranian cityof Ramsar. WWD wascelebrated for the firsttime in 1997 and made anencouraging beginning. Most lakes in theBangalore region werebuilt in the 16th centuryby damming the naturalvalley systems byconstructing bunds.Some major lakes thathave disappeared:

Shoolay lake changed tofootball stadiumAkkithimmanhalli lakebecame CorporationHockey StadiumSampangi lake wastransformed intoKanteerava SportsComplexDharmanbudhi lakechanged toKempegowda BusStationChallaghatta lake madeway for Karnataka GolfAssociationKoramangala lake wasconverted into NationalGames Complex inEjipuraSiddikatte Lake has nowbecome KR MarketKempambudhi is now asewerage collection tankNagashettihalli lake nowhosts the office of thespace departmentKadugondanahalli lakechanged to AmbedkarMedical CollegeDomlur lake changedinto a BDA layoutMiller’s tank changedinto Guru Nanak Bhavan,Badminton StadiumKodihalli lake is now aresidential layoutMarenahalli lake is now aresidential layoutShivanahalli lake madeway for a playgroundand a bus stand

According to a studycarried out by the Centrefor Ecological Sciences(CES), Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore, thewater bodies of the cityhave reduced from 3.40per cent (2,324 ha(5,742.7 acres)) in 1973 tojust about 1.47 per cent(1,005 ha (2,483.4 acres))in 2005 with built up areaduring the correspondingperiod increasing to 45.19per cent (30,476 ha(75,307.8 acres)) from27.30 per cent (18,650 ha(46,085.2 acres)).The adverse results of thedeath of lakes have been:

Frequent flooding andmicro-climatic changesin the cityUndesirable impact onthe diversity of floraand faunaDecrease in thenumber of migratorybirdsFishing community andwasher-men will berobbed of theirlivelihood

A recent study says mostof Bangalore’s lakes aretoxic, with very lessdissolved oxygen.

Source: Wikipedia

—DNA photos

The originalcommunities who livedin Bangalore didn'tvandalise the lakes.They knew their value.Many lakes weredrinking water sources

—Suresh Heblikar,Eco-Watch

Clearly, people wantto be involved inprotecting their lakes,parks, open spaces,and thus secure areasonably goodquality of life for all

—Leo Saldanha, Environment Support Group

Kodigehalli Lake

Kengeri Lake

4 BANGALORE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2013

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