Subramani, a farmer from Anekal taluk, says he has been in a difficult situation lately. On his farmland adjacent to Heelalige Lake, he has been growing crops like sapota, broccoli and coconuts for years. The quality of the water from the borewells has been poor, but now on top of that a new problem has left him befuddled. Every time it rains, his land gets flooded resulting in the destruction of crops, he says.
A view of Hebbagodi lake. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Navin and Harish, ward councillors from Anekal taluk, are just back from a quick inspection of the Hebbagodi lake. After a harsh summer which saw borewells in the area drying up, the situation has improved, but not solved entirely, they say. ‘It flooded until here last day,’ they say pointing to a tea shop located about 100 meters from the lake.
More than 20 red category industries are located in the catchment area of Yarandahalli Lake. According to residents in the area, many of the factories have been letting out untreated industrial effluents into the lake for years. Around a year ago, the lake was rejuvenated and the inlets from the catchment area closed off to stop the waste from reaching the lake. The lake looks more or less dry now. But locals say that now, even after a small rain, their houses get flooded.
In all the above situations, the victims feel that lake restoration works gone awry is the reason for their plight.
Malligavad Foundation stone near Yarandahalli lake. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
More than 30 lakes in Anekal region were rejuvenated almost a year ago by Malligavad Foundation. Anand Malligavad, founder of the NGO, however, refutes these claims and allege that the real estate mafia, land owners near the lakes and other rivals are behind the allegations.
Bengaluru’s lakes
The networked lake system in Bengaluru which interconnects the lakes in the city through feeder channels and stormwater drains was introduced in 16th century by Kempegowda 1 to harness rainwater mainly for agricultural purposes. For years these lakes acted as natural sponges protecting the city from floods during monsoons.
However, lately, the city has become one of the most prone to urban flooding, thanks to increasing concretisation and rampant encroachments of lake and stormwater drains. While new structures came on top several lakes, many others fell into disuse and were filled with sewage and garbage.
According to Malligavad, it was with the aim of rejuvenating such lakes that he started his work in 2017 with his first restoration project being Kyalasanahalli lake.
Today, however, many feel that the restoration works have only resulted in new problems.
The NGO’s restoration process starts with dewatering and desilting the lakes, using the silt to raise the bund height around the lakes and closing off the inlets into the lakes to avoid sewage seeping into the lakes. The inlets are instead connected to the outlets directly and only direct rainwater falls into the lakes.
While this has considerably reduced the pollution in the lakes, the volume of water in these lakes have also gone down considerably. Water in the catchment area cannot reach the lakes and instead starts flooding the surroundings, say activists and residents near these lakes.
Tushar Chandra of VrikshaMitra Foundation points out that in the last two years, more than nine lakes in Anekal were drained, desilted and made deeper. These lakes have been modified to have a tank in the centre, multiple lagoons around it and a permanent diversion channel beside the tank, he notes.
“The height of the bunds was increased to prevent any inflow of water from the catchment area into the central tank.”
“But when the flow of water from the catchment area into the lake is disrupted, there is just runoff of the rainwater. Most of our land being covered with concrete or tar is impermeable to rainwater. Therefore, the rainwater would flood areas that are at a lower level,” he says.
A view of Yarandahalli lake. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Groundwater depleted
At Hebbagodi, people allege that their borewells went dry after the rejuvenation of the lakes.
“We don’t get Cauvery water and there was a serious water shortage issue here. After the lake was drained last year for rejuvenation work, we didn’t receive much rains and the lake remained dry. The groundwater depleted and borewell levels also went down,” says a council member in the area. He points out that the lake has already become significantly smaller from around 32 acres to less than 15 acres.
He also alleges that while initially the residents were promised that the silt from the lake would be taken outside, later it was used to make the bund around the tank higher.
“Now water flows to this area from Shikaripalya and flooding occurs,” he says, alleging the foundation of having left the restoration works midway.
Flooding intensified
Nachu Kannan, a resident of R.K. Township in Bommasandra near Yarandahalli Lake, says flooding in the area has intensified after the lake was restored by Malligavad Foundation and Biocon Foundation.
“Earlier too there would be water on the roads when it rains, but it would recede soon and never entered our houses,” she says.
“The catchment area for Yarandahalli lake is the Jigani industrial area that comes to around 5 sqkm. The water from all this area must ideally come to the lake and evenly distribute gradually to other areas. But Malligavad has created a separate channel beside the lake connecting the inlet and outlet. Due to this all the water from the much concretised catchment area starts flowing to the roads when it rains.”
According to her the usage of silt from the lake in building the bunds has added to the problem. She notes that due to effluent content in it, the silt doesn’t compact and gets carried away to the primary and secondary drains along with the water. This contributes to the storm water drains getting blocked and water flowing on to the roads.
“Last Wednesday when it rained just 6mm, we faced flooding here. Water from outside reached my sump, I fell sick and we had to throw out 16,000 litres of water,” says Kannan who feels the ideal solution to save the lake is to hold the polluting industries accountable and prevent them from discharging effluents instead of cordoning off the lake from its catchment area.
Reverse flow
In April this year, Malligavad Foundation was slapped with an FIR for causing “injury to works of irrigation or wrongfully diverting water” under Section 430 of Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority Act, 2014. The FIR was lodged by the Chief Officer of Chandrapur town municipal council for damaging Heelalige lake. The NGO also faced charges of trespass under section 447 of the Act.
“The tall bunds around the lake have disrupted the flow of the water through the natural slope of the land into the lakes. Now it’s flowing in reverse direction and flooding our farmlands. The rajakaluve to the lake has also been closed off by the foundation,” says Somashekhar Reddy, a farmer who lives near the lake.
Amid criticisms, however, Anand Malligavad stands by his work and asserts it has been carried out scientifically. Blaming the real estate mafia, land owners near lakes who want to encroach the water bodies and industries that pollute the lakes, he says the focus should be on those who spoil the lakes and not on those who try to rejuvenate them.
Lagoon near Chikka Kammasandra lake. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Refuting claims
Taking the example of Yarandahalli lake, he explains.
“Effluents from industries used to come into the lake through the inlets turning it into a ‘lifeless septic tank’ and polluting the ground water.”
“With the ₹85 lakhs I received from Biocon I dewatered and desilted the lakes and removed about 4-5 feet of slurry. The first and second inlets were converted into lagoons with floating plant islands so that water would come in slowly, silt will be trapped naturally and thin water will reach the outlet.”
According to him the idea was to convert 15% of the lake area into such grey water wetlands and the remaining 85% of the lake was to receive rainwater from the sky.
Noting that bunds were raised and walking tracks were built to protect the lakes from encroachment, Malligavad refutes the claims that the foundation made the lakes deeper. He alleges that substantial quantity of earth was already removed by other parties from many lakes for purposes such as brickmaking and landfilling and this was later filled by silt and slurry.
“Most problems are created by people who own properties around the lake. They are irked by the fact that high bunds are created and they cannot encroach the lakes anymore,” he says.
Noting that the harsh summer last year resulted in most of the rejuvenated lakes turning dry, he swears the the situation would change now as good rains are expected.
Published - June 13, 2024 09:00 am IST
