*& SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC [/ Say? CHANGE MONOGRAPHS Vanishing Lakes: A Study of Bangalore City P Thippaiah Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore 2009SOCIALAND ECONOMIC CHANGE MONOGRAPH SERIES Number 17 September 2009 ISBN 81-7791-116-3 Series Editor: DRAJASEKHAR © 2009, Copyright Reserved The Institute for Social and Economic Change Bangalore The Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) is engaged in interdisciplinary research in analytical and applied areas of social sciences, encompassing diverse aspects of change and development. ISEC works with central, state and local governments as well as international agencies by undertaking systematic studies of resource potential, identifying factors influencing growth and examining measures for reducing poverty, The thrust areas of research include state and local economic policies, issues relating to sociological and demographic transition, environmental issues and fiscal, administrative and political decentralization and governance, It pursues fruitful contacts with other institutions and scholars devoted to social science research through collaborative research programmes, seminars, etc. The Social and Economic Change Monograph Series provides an opportunity for ISEC faculty, visting fellows and PhD scholars to disseminate their ideas and research work. Monographs in the series present empirical analyses and generally deal with wider issues of public policy at a sectoral, regional or national level. Publication of this Monograph has been made possible through the generous support of Sir Ratan Tata Deferred Endowment Fund.Kempe Gowda (1510-1591) Founder of Bangalore More than 100 Lakes in and around Bangalore were built by Kempe Gowda and his successorsForeword Rapid urbanisation in many parts of the world including India has posed 2 serious threat to natural resources around urban areas. The demand for land in urban areas increased fast. This was met not only by expansion in the pen-urban areas but also by taking over the breathing spaces in urban localities. These included green lands, parks, water-bodies. The worst victims were the tanks and ponds in and around urban areas as the ownership was easily manoeuvrable. All this resulted in the disappearance of most of urban lakes. The vanishing of lakes has caused loss of irrigated lands, drinking water sources as well as threatened agricultural activities, the fisher folk, greenery, and recreation activities. Even the existing lakes have become unfit as sources of drinking water due to the growth of water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds and encroachments. These have lost flood-absorbing capacity leading to the new phenomenon of ‘urban floods’. The urban floods are playing havoc in the cities due to the loss of natural drainage activities and the low- lying areas, which were earlier under tank irrigation, having come undet various human activities, Human beings and livestock living around these lakes are prone to severe vulnerabilities and disease vectors. The city of Bangalore is no exception to these developments and is even worse when compared with many other cities in the country. In this backdrop, this Monograph is an innovative attempt to present characteristics of lakes, encroachment issues, tejuvenation of Jakes and tank maintenance measures. The consequences of the lost lakes and the encroachments have been discussed in detail which would draw the attention of policy makers to think seriously about these problems and plan sorne measures to overcome them. The final chapter of the Monograph provides policy implications Suggests various measures for the preservation of lakes, particularly for providing drinking water, maintenance of micro climate and ground water rechatge etc. This study comes out of Dr P Thippaiaha’s long-term engagement in the subject and his rich field experience collected through personal visits. Study of tanks has not only been his academic subject, but it is his passion, and this is evident in almost every sentence in the Monograph. I am sure this study will help in formulating effective policies for urban lakes in general and for Bangalore’s lakes in specific, September 2009 RS Deshpande Director, ISECKempe Gowda (1510-1591) Sai ii 3 ae, Founder of Bangalore More than 100 Lakes in and around Bangalore were built by Kempe Gowda and his successorsForeword Rapid urbanisation in many parts of the world including India has posed 2 serious threat to natural resources around urban areas. The demand for land in urban areas increased fast. This was met not only by expansion in the peri-urban areas but also by taking over the breathing spaces in urban localities. These included green lands, parks, water-bodies. The worst victims were the tanks and ponds in and around urban areas as the ownership was easily manoeuvrable, All this resulted in the disappearance of most of urban lakes. The vanishing of lakes has caused loss of irrigated lands, drinking water sources as well as threatened agricultural activities, the fisher folk, greenery, and recreation activities. Even the existing lakes have become unfit as sources of drinking water due to the growth of water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds and encroachments. These have lost flood-absorbing capacity leading to the new phenomenon of ‘urban floods’. The urban floods are playing havoc in the cities due to the loss of natural drainage activities and the low- lying areas, which were earlier under tank irrigation, having come under various human activities. Human beings and livestock living around these lakes are prone to severe vulnerabilities and disease vectors. The city of Bangalore is no exception to these developments and is even worse when compared with many other cities in the country. In this backdrop, this Monograph is an innovative attempt to present characteristics of lakes, encroachment issues, rejuvenation of lakes and tank maintenance measures. The consequences of the lost lakes and the encroachments have been discussed in detail which would draw the attention of policy makers to think seriously about these problems and plan some measures to overcome them. The final chapter of the Monograph provides policy implications suggests various measures for the preservation of lakes, particularly for providing drinking water, maintenance of micro climate and ground water recharge etc. This study comes out of Dr P Thippaiaha’s long-term engagement in the subject and his rich field experience collected through personal visits. Study of tanks has not only been his academic subject, but it is his passion, and this is evident in almost every sentence in the Monograph. I am sure this study will help in formulating effective policies for urban lakes in general and for Bangalore’s lakes in specific. September 2009 R § Deshpande Director, ISECCONTENTS List of Tables i List of Appendices ii List of Appendix Maps ii CuapTerRI [INTRODUCTION 1-3 1.1. Methodology and Data Sources 2 1.2. Organisation of Chapters 3 CuapTer TT Lakes: CHARACTERISTICS AND ENCROACHMENTS 4-15 2.1. Introduction 4 2.2. Characteristics of Lakes/Tanks 4 2.3. Ownership of Lakes 7 24. Encroachments 9 2.5. Complete Encroachments 10 2.6. Partia] Encroachments 12 2.7. Comparison of Urban Tanks/Lakes Encroachment 14 with Rural Tanks 28. Eviction of Encroachments 5 CuapTter [II REJUVENATION OF LAKES/TANKS 16-29 3.1. Introduction 16 3.2. Rejuvenation 16 3.3. Investment on Lake Restoration in the City 18 3.4, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Policy for 2 Development of Lakes 3.5. Impact of PPP B 3.6. Condition of Lakes in Some Cities in the State 25 and their Rehabilitation 3.7, Reasons for the Failure of Rejuvenation Efforts 26 3.8. Multiple Agencies for Lake Development 26 3.9. Lack of Integrated Approach 27 3.10, Lack of Vigil on Lakes/Tanks 2B 3.11. Garbage Flow into Lakes 28 3.12. By-passing of Court Directions and Laws 2 3.13. Leasing of Lakes by LDA to Private Builders 2 and Hotels 3.14. Corruption 2 Cuapter TV IMPACT OF VANISHED AND EXNCROACHED Lakes 30-41 41. Introduction 30 42. Decline in the Number of Lakes 3% 43. Loss of Irrigated, Water-spread and Catchment Areas 3144. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 4.10. 4.11. 4.12. 4.13. 4.14. 415. 4.16. 417 Human Suffering Loss of Drinking Water Sources Reduction of Storage due to Encroachment and Sedimentation Non-Filling of Lakes Pollution of Water Pollution of Groundwater Presence of High Concentration of Metals in Vegetables Grown Using Polluted Lake Water Health Hazards Disappearance of Birds Flora and Fauna Growth of Water Hyacinth and Its Impact Depletion of Groundwater Flooding of Urban Areas Constructions on Lakes are Vulnerable to Quakes CriarPteR V- PROFILES OF SOME Live AND VANISHED Lakes/TANKS 5.1 $2. Profiles of Live Lakes Profiles of Vanished Lakes Cnarter VI Coxciustons ann Pocicy [Meiications APPENDICES REFERENCES 3B BRR BEYSRRe 2 42-71 Q 6 72-79 80-101 102-107Table 2.1: Table 2.2: Table 2.3: Table 2.4: Table 2.5: Table 2.6: Table 3.1: Table 3.2: Table 3.3: Table 3.4: Table 3.5: Table 4.1: Table 4.2: Table 4.3: Table 4.4: List oF TABLES Number of Lakes/Tanks in Bangalore Urban District Distribution of Lakes/Tanks in Bangalore Urban District and Some Parts of Other Taluks of Bangalore Rural District Characteristics of Lakes/Tanks in Bangalore Urban Agglomeration Ownership of Lakes in Bangalore Status of Tanks/Lakes in Bangalore Estimates of Lake Encroachment in Bangalore Number of Lakes/Tanks Developed by Different Agencies in Bangalore City Grants Released by NLCP and Amount Spent during 2001-2006 in Bangalore City Outlay and Expenditure on Lakes/Tanks Development in Bangalore City Six Cascades of Bangalore Lakes/Tanks Listed for Development Number of Lakes/Tanks Developed by Different Agencies in Other Urban Parts of Kamataka Gross and Net Irrigated Area by Tanks in Karmataka and Bangalore Rural & Urban Districts Sources of Drinking Water in Karnataka Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)-2004 Pollution Loads of Lakes in Bangalore Level of Metal Content Found in Plants Grown under Bellandur Lakes/Tanks wn 10 ll 19 2)Appendix I: Appendix 2: Appendix 3: Appendix 4: Appendix 5: Appendix 6: Map |: Map 2: List OF APPENDICES Usage of Encroached Lakes/ Tanks in Bangalore by Different Agencies Waterspread Area of Lakes/Tanks and Extent of Encroachment in Bangalore Rehabilitated in Bangalore City Under Various Programmes Lakes Already Restored/Being Restored, Improved, Operated and Maintained in Bangalore Urban District Tanks Rehabilitated in Urban Areas of Karnataka Other than Bangalore Six Series of Chain Lakes in Bangalore List of APPENDIX Maps Satellite image of lakes Under Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) jurisdiction Six Lake Series in Bangalore ¥ S$ SS Be Bs 101CHAPTERI INTRODUCTION Tanks have been built both in rural and urban areas for catering to the multiple needs of the community. In rural areas, the tanks were built to serve the need of irrigation and drinking water, whereas in urban areas, they were built with a view to supporting the fragile eco-system and help recharge groundwater, besides providing surface water for a varicty of uses including natural recreational purposes. Compared to other cities in the state, more tanks and lakes were built in and around Bangalore and that is why it was variously called the City of Lakes, Garden City, Pensioners* Paradise and Air-Conditioned City of South India (Mani 1985:2). In other words, several of these man-made lakes in the city had contributed to the clean and salubrious climate that has been instrumental in attracting many of the public sector undertakings, Information Technology (IT) set-ups and multinational companies (MNCs). Today, many of these lakes/ tanks in and around Bangalore have lost their glory and purposes due to rapid growth of population, urbanisation and other factors. In terms of urbanisation, both Karnataka as a whole and the city of Bangalore have experienced relatively faster growth in India. According to 2001 census, the state stood at fourth in urbanisation (34 per cent) next to Maharashtra (42.43 per cent), Tamil Nadu (44.04 per cent) and Gujarat (37.36 per cent). Similarly, the Bangalore Metropolitan Area also has experienced faster urbanisation in terms of area expansion and population. Its built-up area increased from 130 sq km with 1.2 million population in 1961 to 366 sq km with 29.2 lakh population in 1981 and 439 sq km with 5.8 million in 2001. It was also projected that its built-up area would go up to 812sqkm witha population of 8.8 million by 2015 as per the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP 2005-2015). The area of Bangalore has increased from 439 sq km to 741 sq km, after the creation of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The fact of urbanisation is also evident from its position in the country. It was the 16th biggest Metropolis in the country in 1941 and the sixth largest Urban Agglomeration out of 23 Metropolis and Urban Aggtomerations in India in 2001. It is also one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Rapid urbanisation in Bangalore has resulted in the expansion of housing colonies in an unplanned manner. causing damage to the environment. In order to prevent this, a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP-1984) earmarked 439.28 sq km for con-urban area and 839.72 sq km for greenbelt,2 Dying Lakes of the Garden City accounting for 65 per cent of the CDP area, of which, the lake area constituted about 5 per cent. This CDP was revised in 1995. The purpose of keeping the vast land as greenbelt was to retain agricultural tand and prevent environmental pollution that caused heatth hazards to the residents of Bangalore City. However, over a period of time, both in the con-urban and. greenbelt areas, the built-up area increased in all directions. In the greenbelt area, illegal layouts have been formed. As a result of this, the greenbelt area declined from 839.72 sq km to 682 sq km in 2005 resulting in the disappearance of vast agricultural tracts, tree cover, lakes and tanks. The loss of agricultural lands led to a decline in the net sown area in Bangalore Urban district. The net sown area in Bangalore Urban district was 102,331 ha in 1986-87 and it declined to 85,575 ha in 2000-2001, The lakes/tanks were particularly breached and encroached upon for creating public utilities and construction of houses both in con-urban and greenbelt areas. Along with this, the greedy residents of Bangalore encroached upon Common Property Resources (CPRs) on a large scale, as there was heavy demand for land with spiralling prices in and around Bangalore. However, the tanks saw the worst form of encroachments among the CPRs; even the existing tanks have not been spared. They are being used for dumping urban domestic solid wastes, sewage water and industrial effluents. This led to serious consequences such as water scarcity, pollution of lakes, groundwater depletion, declining agricultural output ete. (These have been discussed in greater detail in Chapter III.} Against this background, this study tries to analyse the various dimensions of urban water bodies or wetlands/ lakes/ tanks in the City. 1,1. Methodology and Data Sources The data available on urban tanks are nebulous as there is no scientific census on lakes and tanks in and around the urban areas, both at the national and state levels. This is true in the case of Bangalore too. In view of this, it is difficult to present a clear and comprehensive picture of lakes in Bangalore. However, we do have limited data available on Bangalore lakes/tanks which enables us to draw some inferences. One can also observe that the situation of lakes in other cities in the state is in no way different from the ones in Bangalore City (A brief note on this is presented in Chapter [IT, Section 3.5). The available secondary data and literature on the tanks (wetlands) have been used for the study. The secondary data have been mainly collected from Minor Irrigation and Forest Departments, Directorate of EconomicsIntroduction 3 and Statistics, Lake Development Authority (LDA) and the various newspaper articles. Discussions were also held with the officials of government bodies, who were custodians of these tanks, and other organisations for ascertaining the exact status of the tanks. Field visits to some of the lakes/tanks were also made for a better understanding of the ground realities of lakes/tanks and their environs. 1,2. Organisation of the Chapters The Monograph has been organised into six chapters. The first chapter gives an introduction to lakes in Bangalore besides covering methodology and data sources for the study. The second chapter provides the characteristics of lakes and the issue of encroachments. The third chapter deals with rejuvenation and maintenance of lakes, reasons for the failure of the rejuvenation programmes and a brief status of lakes in other urban parts of the state. The fourth chapter deals with the impact of lost and encroached lakes. The fifth chapter gives a brief profile of some live and lost lakes. The last chapter touches upon conclusions and pelicy implications.CHAPTERII LAKES: CHARACTERISTICS AND ENCROACHMENTS 2.1. Introduction The city of Bangalore is well-known for its lakes and tanks which take care of the drinking water requirements of the city with an average annual rainfall of 1,100 mm. These lakes have also contributed to its celebrated ambience and its salubrious climate (Rau ef a/ 1986:1). This fact is evident from the study of Bangalore’s landscape by Mathur and Cunha (2006). Today, many of the lakes and tanks in the ‘IT City’ have disappeared and the existing ones are in a highly polluted condition and heavily encroached upon. As a result, the salubrious climate has given way to sultry, stuffy and suffocating climatic conditions with smog, stench and a rise in temperature damaging the environment of the city. According to a report, over the past 50 years, Bangalore’s temperature has risen by at least 1.5 degree both in winter and summer due to disappearance of lakes (Anonymous 2009a). 2.2. Characteristics of Lakes/Tanks There are varying estimates on the number of tanks in Bangalore Metropolitan Area. This is because of the consideration of different boundary limits by agencies and researcher's, such as BBMP area, BDA area, Bangalore Urban Agglomeration, Bangalore Metropolitan Area and Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Authority (1985). Although the study on landscape of Bangalore by Mathur and Cunha (2006), based ona survey of water bodies in 1791 and subsequent surveys, indicates the existence of several tanks in and around Bangalore, this fails to provide the exact area of the city and the number of tanks that existed in the city area. Even the two existing official sources, which provide some data on lakes/tanks in Bangalore Urban district, of which a large part constitutes the Bangalore city, do not help us overcome this limitation. This is because of sharp differences across these sources. As per the Minor Irrigation Census-1986-87 of the Department of Minor Irrigation, there were 608 tanks of all size classes in Bangalore Urban district with a culturable cornmand area of 12,827 ha (having a command area up to 2,000 ha) and gross irrigation potential created of 3,004 ha. But, the data provided by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics show that around 652 tanks existed in the same year in Bangalore Urban district and that they have remained the same to date (see Table 2.1). The difference inLakes: Characteristics and Encroachments 5 the number of tanks between these two sources is 50. Therefore, itis difficult to arrive at any definitive conclusion on the number of lakes/tanks in Bangalore City. Table 2.1: Number of Lakes/Tanks in Bangalore Urban District Area: Hectares Year As Per the Minor Irrigation Department, As Per the Directorate af Economics Government of Karnataka and Statistics, Government of Karnataka Tanks Cuiturabie Gross | Gross Net Tanks Culeurasble Gross 9 Grass Net Command Potential Irrigated Irrigated Command Potential Irrigated rrigated Area Area Area Area 1983 458 NA 11,656" NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 1986-87 608 12.827 13,004 NA NA 652 NA NA 9,604 8,682 1989-90 578 NA 12,018 NA NA 652 NA NA 8.410 6.774 1990-91 578 NA 12.018* NA NA 652 NA NA 6,132 5,923 1993-94 559 NA 11,601 NA NA 652 NA NA 4624 3,602 2005-06 560 NA NA NA NA 652 NA NA 2,549 2,369 Note: 1. *Atchkat areas are for 1983 and 1986-87 and refer to Bangalore South and North and Anckal taluks. which form part of Bangalore Urban District. . Tank figures for (986-87 also include 109 tanks, which are not in use. The figures for 1983. 1989-90 and 1990-1991 relate to these tanks having a command area of 4-2.000 ha. Source: Government of Karnataka, Scason and Annual Crop Reports, DES. Bangalore Government of Kamataka, Minor brigation Census-1986-87 and Minor Irrigation Statistics at a Glance for the respective years, Department of water Resource (Minor Irrigation}, Bangalose. Ve wn In contrast to the above data sources, there is another source, which claims that the city of Bangalore had 261 lakes till 1961 (GoK 2002-2003: 3, GoK, LDA and INEP 2002:5, GoK 2001:4) and their number declined to 81 as per the Lakshman Rau Committee Report (1986), a decline of 35.09 per cent, and waterspread area by 8.66 per cent. According to Lakshman Rau Report, there were 389 lakes/ tanks in Bangalore Metropolitan Area (1,279 sq km), which was under Bangalore Development Authority jurisdiction as per CDP 1984. These lakes accounted for 20.60 per cent of the Bangalore Urban and Rural districts together as per DES and 59.66 per cent of Bangalore Urban district in 1986-87. Out of the 389 lakes, 262 were in the greenbelt area (839.72 sq km) (Table 2.2) and the remaining 127 lakes/tanks were in con-urban area (449 sq km). Out of the 127 tanks in con-urban area, 81 were live tanks and 46 disused tanks. Out of the 81 live tanks, 79 had a waterspread area of 1,079.08 hectares and 38 of the 46 disused lakes had a waterspread area of 346.74 hectares. Altogether, 113 lakes/tanks had a waterspread area of 1,425.82 hectares which worked out to 12.62 hectares per tank as against the state average of 11.98 hectares, and 24 lakes/tanks had an irrigated area of 506.90 hectares which worked out to 2].12 ha per lake/tank as against the state6 Dying Lakes of the Garden City average of 18 ha (Table 2.3). This means the city lakes were bigger in size as compared to rural tanks in the state. The bigger tanks had been built around the city with a view to providing irrigation and drinking water to the growing population of Bangalore City as there were no perennial rivers around the city. Table 2. 2: Distribution of Lakes/Tanks by Bangalore Urban District and Some Parts of Other Taluks of Bangalore Rural District Sl. No. Name of the Taluk No. of Lakes/Tanks 1 Bangalore North 6l 2 Bangalore South 98 3 Anekal “4 4 Hoskote* 3 5 Magadi* 1 6 Nelamangala* 13 7 Devanahalli* 12 Total 262 Note: 1, These lakes/tanks were located in the greenbelt area, having more than 40 ha of command area. 2. * One hobli (Bidaralli) from Hoskote taluk (63 Villages) and one hobli (Tavarekere) from Magadi taluk (51 Villages) were transferred to Bangalore South from Bangalore Rural district. Similarly, one hobli (Dasanapura) from Nelamangala taluk (73 Villages) and one hobli (Jala) from Devanahalli taluk (52 villages) were transferred to Bangalore North taluk, which were part of Bangalore Rural district before the formation of Bangalore Urban District in 1986. The data provided by the Lakshman Rau Committee Report appears to be an under-estimate. Generally, one expects more number of lakes in Urban Agglomeration due to three reasons: a) Expansion of the city leads to tural lakes becoming part of urban lakes; b) Transfer of some villages along with lakes from Bangalore Rural district to Bangalore South and North taluks when these became a part of the newly constituted Bangalore Urban district in 1986; and c) If the tanks were irrigating less than 40 ha, they were also included. However, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite imageries found more lakes in Bangalore. According to satellite images of the ISRO, coupled with the topo sheet of Survey of India Information, thereLakes: Characteristics and Encroachments 7 are 2,789 tanks/lakes of all size-classes with a water spread area of 18,260.48 ha in BMRDA area of 8.800 sq km (Urban and Rural districts (2,298 tanks), and Malur taluk (491 tanks) of Kolar district jurisdictions (GOK. LDA and INEP 2602: 7 and also see Appendix Map-1). The estimate of ISRO was more than the total number of lakes 2091 (Bangalore urban and Rural districts) as per the Minor Irrigation Department data in 2000-200! and 1888 tanks/lakes as per DES in 2005-2006. According to ISRO, in BDA area was 608 with 4572.73 ha of water spread area which was equal to Minor Irrigation Census data at 608 in 1986-87 (see Table 2.1). Table 2.3: Characteristics of Lakes/Tanks in Bangalore Urban Agglomeration SL. No. Lake Features Number/Area I Live Lakes in conurban area 8] 2 Dis-used lakes in conurban area 46 3 Total lakes in conurban area (1 +2) 127 4 Lakes in Greenbelt area* 262 5 Total lakes (3+4) 389 6 Waterspread area of 113 lakes 1425.82 ha 7 Average Waterspread area 12.62 ha 8 Irrigated area of 24 lakes** 506.90 ha 9 Average irrigated area 21.12 ha Note: *- Information on Waterspread area available, **. Information on Irrigated area Available (See Appendix-l). Source: For S1. No. 1-7, Rau et af 1986, For Sl. No. 8-9, Census of India- 1981, Series- 9, Kamataka State-Bangalore District. With the above differences in the number of lakes existing across sources, it is difficult to make any definitive statement on the number of tanks in Bangalore Agglomeration and the Bangalore Urban District. However, one can broadly agree that Bangalore city had tanks numbering about 400 and Bangalore Urban District about 600 lakes/tanks. 2.3. Ownership of Lakes Prior to 1986, the lakes in the city were under the jurisdiction of nearly 16 departments including defence, Zilla Panchayats and Horticulture, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). In 1986, the Lakshman Rau Committee had identified 8} live and 46 disused lakes in the city and 90 of8 Dying Lakes of the Garden City them had been transferred to forest departments and the rest were owned jointly by the forest and other departments. Table 2.4 presents the ownership of these transferred tanks. lt is clear from the table that the Forest Department alone owned a lion's share and the rest of the tanks were owned jointly or individually by one or more other departments. Table 2.4: Ownership of Lakes in Bangalore SL Name of the Agency Disused Live Total No Lakes/Tanks Lakes/Tanks Lakes/Tanks 1 Forest Department 28 a wD 2 Forest Department and 3 9 12 KSTDC, Bangalore 3 Forest Department and KSTDC - 1 1 and Miner Irrigation Dept. 4 Forest Department and BDA 3 3 6 5 Forest Department and BWSSB, - 4 4 Bangalore 6 Forest Department & BBMP | - ] 7 Already put under some use 8 2 10 by Government 8 BDA 2 - 2 9 BMP 1 : l Total 46 81 127 Note: KSTDC-Kamataka State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd.; BDA- Bangalore Development Authority; BBMP- Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, BWSSB: Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board. Source: Lakshman Rau Committee Report 1986. An efficient network of above mentioned lakes and tanks were built by Kempegowda, who was the founder of Bangalore City in the 15" Century, to provide water for drinking, household uses, agriculture, fisheries and also for religious and cultural purposes during his time, and also to meet the future growth of the city, as there were no major rivers around Bangalore. Apart from this, the tanks had been built with a view to recharge ground water and prevent water logging and flooding. Some of them were Dharmambudhi, (supplied drinking water till 1895) (presently, Kempegowda Bus Stand), Sampangi (presently, Kanteerava Stadium), Siddikatte (presently, City Market), Karanji (presently, Chamarajpet and Gandhi Bazar) (Agarwal and Narain: 1997:206) and Millers tanks (presently, Hospitals, Gurunanak Bhavan, IT Companies, schools and residential buildings). In addition toLakes; Characteristics and Encroachments 9 these, tanks such as Ullalkere, Jaraganahalli-Sarakki, Ulsoor, Madivala, Hebbal, Hennur, Agara and Bellandur were used to provide drinking water to the city in addition to open wells and step ponds (Venkataraman 2000:45). Some of these tanks/lakes look like small water bodies now, because of encroachments. In 1960, the Ulsoor Lake. Shoolay and Pudupachery tanks supplied water to the Bangalore Cantonment area (Agarwal and Narain 1997:207). The Domlur tank was used by the British military for watering artillery horses (presently, BDA Layout). In the course of time, two more big tanks were built in the periphery for supplying water to the Bangaloreans. These tanks were Hesaraghatta and Thippagondanahalli. The Hesaraghatta tank (Catchment area 490 sq.km) was constructed across Arkavthi River in 1894, It was initially used for irigating agricultural land, and later on for supplying drinking water to the city (from 1925). The Thippagondanahalli tank (150 MLD) was constructed across the same river (Arkavathi) in 1933 for supplying drinking water to the city. The Thippagondanahalli tank project was recommended by Sir M Visvesvaraya. Today, the first tank has almost dried up due to the loss of catchment area following diversion of waterways by housing colonies. Further, the prolonged emptiness of the tank has resulted in encroachment. The Thippagondanahalli tank has also not been able to supply the requisite volume of water to the city due to inadequate rains and inflows and loss of catchment area. This trend has led to shortage of drinking water in the city and the water has become an economic commodity. Further, this has led to the emergence of unregulated private bore wel] water markets. However, for the last two decades, the city has been getting its supply of drinking water from the Cauvery Reservoir. Even then the shortage of water in city is extent of 17S5MLD per day. 2.4. Encroachments One of the major reasons for the disappearance of lakes, their storage capacities and shrinkage of their area is encroachment. However, the information on this issue is inadequate to understand its magnitude and impact. Even the existing limited information is not enough to draw any inferences as it differs across the sources. However, one thing is clear that both public as well as private sectors have encroached upon vast tracts of lakes/tanks. The public agencies, in the course of developing public infrastructure of various kinds, have either completely or partially encroached upon tanks/lakes. The magnitude of such encroachment has been presented below.10 Dying Lakes of the Garden City 2.5. Complete Encroachments The government agencies such as Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Kamataka Housing Board (K HS), Sports Authority of India (SAI}, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and other government departments have expanded their activities beyond the city limits and Town Municipalities for providing housing, public utilities and infrastructure facilities for the growing population, besides booming Information Technology and its embedded services. In the process of expansion, several! lakes were either destroyed or encroached upon. This is reflected in the decline in the number of lakes. The number of tanks decreased from 262 in 1960 to 81 in the conurban area in 1986 and to 67 in 2006. This meant disappearance of 195 tanks. The surviving 67 are also at different stages of deterioration (see Table 2.5). As stated above, there were 127 lakes in 1986 as per the Lakshman Rau report and the conditions of these tanks today are much worse. This is clear from Table 2.5. Out of 127 lakes, only 67 are visible. Some of these have been partially restored and others are in advanced stages of deterioration. However, the LDA has indicated that only 34 tanks/lakes have been recognised as live out of 81 live tanks (LDA 2003-2004: 1; LDA 2002-2003; GoK 2001:4). Table 2.5: Status of Tanks/Lakes in Bangalore Sl. Current Status No. of No. Lakes ! Dried up and are leased out by the Government 13 2 Sewage water filled and some of them are in 60 advanced stages of deterioration. 3 BDA has breached for forming extensions, creating 28 public utilities and house sites for general public 4 Unauthorised occupation by slums and private parties i} 3 Recognisable as small pool of water (cess pools) 7 due to encroachments 6 Cannot be traced (fully encroached) 4 Total 527 Source: |. Forest Department, Government of Karnataka 2. Chandramouli (2002).Lakes: Characteristics and Enctoachments ae The information available on 90 tanks out of 195 disappeared tanks as on 2006 indicates that they were converted into layouts, complexes, schools, hospitals and bus stands (see Appendix-[). This fact is also clear from a study conducted by the I!Sc. The study indicates that the lakes and their area in the city have been on decline. The number of lakes declined from 51 with 321 ha in 1973 to 17 with 87 ha in 2007 in the city area. Similarly, the lakes declined from 159 with 2003 ha in 1973 to 93 lakes with 918 ha in 2007 in greater Bangalore (Ramachandra & Uttman Kumar 2008). Among the agencies which destroyed the lakes, the City Improvement Trust Board (CITB) later named as BDA, has been found to be the major culprit. While playing its role as a provider of housing facilities and infrastructure to the growing population, it acquired vast tracts of agricultural land including the command, catchment and tank bed areas for forming residential layouts, infrastructure and industries. This is one of the major reasons for the disappearance of lakes. The available information shows that the BDA had destroyed 50 lakes (Mathang 2004). About 28 lakes were destroyed despite several directions from the Lakshman Rau Committee and court orders (see Table 2.5). A few instances are presented here that tell us how the directions have been violated in specific cases. 1. The Lakshman Rau Committee Report, 1986, and several directives from the courts have made it very clear that no lake in Bangalore should be disturbed or breached or encroached upon for the process of urban development. 2. In 1992, the High Court of Karnataka order stayed all human habitation on the lakes. However the BBMP violated this order and tried to build a bund on Byrasandra Lake. (Anonymous 2007a) 3. In 1995, the High Court of Karnataka directed that the government has no power to allot any lake area for any purpose. However, the Revenue the Department allotted 18 acres and 16 guntas of Rachenahalli Lake near Jakkur to Jawarlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JINCAR) near Jakkur in 2003. This was contested by LDA (Anonymous 2005c) 4. A 2006 Supreme Court judgment (No. 1251/2006, Intellectuals Forum vs. the State of Andhra Pradesh) states: “The tank is a community property and the State authorities are trustees to hold and manage such properties for the benefit of the community and they cannot be allowed to commit any act or omission which will infringe on the right of the community and alienate the property to any other person or body” (Swathi Shivanand and Divya Gandhi 2007). But violations of this kind are Tampant.12 Dying Lakes of the Garden City 2.6. Partial Encroachments The story of 262 tanks in the greenbelt area and 60 live lakes in conurban area is no better in recent times, as many of these tanks have been partially encroached upon by government and private individuals for various purposes. However, there is no adequate and reliable information available on this to understand its magnitude. Even the available information does not help us understand its magnitude due to variations across the sources on this aspect (see Table 2.6). From the table, it is evident that the extent of encroachment of waterspread areas of lakes in Bangalore city was between 228.02 acres (92.28ha) and 519 acres (210ha). When looked at the proportion of waterspread area encroached, it was found to be 20.38 per cent. Across the lakes, the encroachment varied between | per cent and 100 per cent of the waterspread area (see Appendix-Il). It is reported that about 500 people had encroached upon certain portions of 50 lakes. On an average, 17 people had encroached upon each lake. The Forest Department had filed cases against several of these encroachers. Table 2.6: Estimates of Lake Encroachment in Bangalore SLNo. Source Extent (Acres) 1 Forest Department (2004) 519.00 2 Deputy Commissioner’s Office, 228.02 Bangalore Urban District (2006) 3 A T Ramaswamy Committee 2179 of encroachment In Report (2006) Bangalore Urban district by 1678 people. Out of these, 48 tanks which are in the Urban Forest division has an encroachment of 313 acres by 553 people. Sources: 1. Forest Department. 2. Mathang (2004). 3. Government of Karnataka, Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachments on Bangalore Urban District- Interim Report- Il, January 2007, p-5 1. in Bangalore Urban District (Anonymous 2006 d). 4. Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Bangalore Urban District.Lakes: Characteristics and Encroachments 13 As stated above, the extent of encroachment has been estimated to be 519 acres (220 ha) of 114 tank beds by the Forest Department. Of this, 50 per cent has been encroached dy public agencies for construction of toads, flyovers, bridges, and pipeline, railway tracks, layouts and for dumping hazardous wastes. Another 50 per cent has been encroached by greedy private builders, slum dwellers, industrial complexes and farmers in adjoining areas. Apart from this, some of the layouts and residential areas close to the lakes encroached upon a portion of the lakes. The remaining portion of these lakes has been simply left in several of these layouts without being maintained for several years. The BDA also has left these alone to fulfil the requirement of 13.27 per cent of the land for lung space (parks, playgrounds and recreational areas) according to CDP 1984 (Rau ef af 1986: 77). Many of these lakes have not been developed as parks and amusement parks as stated in urban planning. In fact, the public agencies and private individuals have been using these lakes for dumping domestic wastes in new layouts. As a result, they are highly polluted and covered by water hyacinth and aquatic weeds. Recently the Joint House Committee of the legislature (constituted to survey land encroachments in and around Bangalore) in its report indicated that 2,179 acres of lake/tank beds have been encroached by 1,678 people in Bangalore Urban District. This constitutes 7.97 per cent of the total encroachment of all kinds of lands, Of this, 313 acres of lakes/tanks by 553 people belong to 48 lakes/tanks in Bangalore city (Bangalore urban division of the Forest Department). The water spread encroachment in the case of 48 lakes/tanks account for 9.26 per cent, which is higher than rural tanks (GOK 2007:51). The average encroachment of lakes account for 6.5 acres in urban areas compared to 3.60 acres in rural areas (GoK 2006-2007:11). The encroachers of Lakes/tanks in Bangalore include religious figures, politicians, bureaucrats and realtors. The unholy nexus between the land grabbers, politicians and bureaucrats is mainly responsible for this. The powerful land grabbers have formed layouts on these encroached lands and sold them to the city residents. They have been permitted by the local authorities without verifying the documents. In many cases, the parties obtained permission of residential buildings by producing false and fabricated documents. Some of the officials have also assisted them in such activities. This clearly indicates that there has been a nexus between the officials, builders and politician’s and government agencies. A few instances presented below would explain the failure on the part of the government in preventing the encroachment.14 Dying Lakes of the Garden City |. The Konenaagrahara lake/tank with 20 acres and 10 guntas is close to the old Airport road. The houses have been built on this take bed illegally. The market value of the lake/lank bed has been estimated at Rs 600 cr. (Anonymous 2007c). 2. The private builder (Sicra Developers) has encroached on the Byrasandra Lake worth Rs 200 cr with the help of bureaucrats and politicians and has mortgaged it to Indian Overseas Bank, Jayanagara, as guarantee, for a loan of Rs 5 crore. When the builder failed to repay the loan, the financial institution auctioned the same property for Rs 7.6 cr {Anonymous 2007c). 3. The Bagamane Developers have started constructing a tech park and also a tennis court on the tank/lake bed area of Kelayinakere lake (Byrasandra) near C, V. Raman Nagar. A public litigation was filed in the Karnataka High Court. The court has stayed these constructions {Anonymous 2007e). 4. A relative of a top police official has encroached about 8000 Saft of lake area of Kaggadasapura (Anonymous 2007f). Similarly, 1 acre 15 guntas of Byrasandra Lake has been encroached by a private part for a Tech Park. The eneroacher is linked to a former chief minister of Karnataka (Anonymous 2007a). 5. In Kaudenahalli, about 32 acres of lake bed area been usurped by a private educational institution. The institution has documents to prove that the land was given to them as a grant, even though the lake is not supposed to be given as a grant. (Anonymous 2007d) 6. In the case of Bellandur Lake, about 13 guntas had been encroached by United Builders and Developers and are now being retrieved (Anonymous (2007d). These encroachments clearly indicate the failure on the part of the government in protecting these lakes. 2.7. Comparison of Urban Tanks/Lakes Encroachment with Rural Tanks The extent of encroachment of urban lakes is about 20.38 per cent of the water spread area. This is higher than some of the rural tanks and also the average of state tanks. The average encroachment in the state stands at 10 per cent of the water-spread area (ANSSIRD 1999:29) with 6.69 per cent (Thippaiah 2006: 14) to 15.86 per cent (Thippaiah 1998:111) in the case of some rural tanks.Lakes: Characteristics and Encroachments 15 2.8. Eviction of Encroachments Eviction of private and public encroachments has been quite often emphasised. But the progress made in this regard is far from satisfactory. The LDA and other agencies have experienced difficulty in evicting the encroachments. More than this, there are no adequate powers given to any single agency to evict the encroachers, In 2002, LDA was created for the protection and development of lakes. The LDA, with the help of the Forest Department under which the ownership of lakes vests, has attempted to identify some encroachments and evict them in association with the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) and local police. The LDA evicted some encroachments and recovered land to the extent of 423.62 acres. The value of 12 acres of evicted land in one of the tanks, namely, Agaram Tank (Bangalore-Sarjapur road near Hosur-Sarjapur BDA layout) was estimated to be Rs 6 crore (Anonymous 2001). The Forest Department also filed 55 cases against some who were not wiling to vacate the encroached areas. Of these, 40 cases were disposed off in favour of the Forest Department. Besides this, LDA also wrote letters to civic authorities, requesting to give up the encroached lands. However, the agencies failed to act upon these. For instance, the LDA had written letters to the City Municipal Council (CMC), Bommanahalli, for the eviction of encroachers of Puttenahalli and Doddabegur tanks/lakes; but this local body did not act upon this (Kushalappa 2005). The steps taken by the LDA were inadequate and failed to prevent encroachments completely. When the encroachments were on the rise and the LDA failed to notice them, a few Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case were filed against encroachers. On 2) June 2006, a PIL petition was filed in the high court alleging that one of the ex-ministers who belonged to the Varthur constituency and other politically influential people in the area had encroached on public properties including 23 tank-beds in the CMC areas of Mahadevapura and K R Puram (Anonymous 2006c). A T Ramaswamy Committee (Joint House Committee of the Legislature on Land Encroachment in Bangalore) has also revealed that the LDA had failed to prevent the encroachment of lakes; and in this context, it made the observation that LDA was a useless authority. It also blamed another urban planning agency, BMRDA, which had not only violated the law but also given approval for the development on lake beds.CHAPTER Il REJUVENATION OF LAKES/TANKS 3.1. Introduction The tanks were built around some of the towns and cities keeping in mind two major objectives: first, to support agriculture, and secondly, to provide drinking water for the urban population. Many tanks were generally built where the urban settlements did not have a perennial source of water for irrigation and drinking purposes. One such area was Bangalore and its periphery. These tanks were well-maintained by the village and urban communities till the 1960s, This is clear from the total number of tanks/ Jakes, which was 390, that existed in 1985 around Bangalore City. The rapid urbanisation of Bangalore took a toll on several of these tanks compared to other urban areas. The existing ones are also performing the original roles such as providing irrigation and drinking water, enriching ground-water and maintaining micro-climate and host of other roles. It is believed that forgoing these benefits is necessary in view of larger benefits that accrue from urbanisation and infrastructure development. But viewpoints like this were mainly responsible for the destruction of several lakes, besides the absence of serious efforts and initiatives to save the lakes. Instead, they could have saved the lakes for the larger benefits of the urban society and environment. Ignoring this crucial aspect has led to serious consequences, which have been analysed in the later part of this work. In view of all these, it is high time lakes in urban areas were rejuvenated to ensure that they played their original roles. 3.2. Rejuvenation Realising the importance of lakes in terms of providing adequate drinking water, maintaining micro-climate, enhancing ground water levels, aquaculture and tourism, several initiatives have been carried out in recent years to preserve and develop them in a proper manner with financial grants from the Central and state governments and external agencies. As a first step, the Government of Karnataka entrusted 81 live tanks in the con-urban area of Bangalore to the Forest Department in 1988 for protection and development as per the recommendations of the Lakshman Rau Committee Report (1986), The report recommended restoration of 3 live lakes, besides developing 32 tanks into mini forests and covering 46 tanks with waterRejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 17 sheet and plantations along the water spread area and eviction of encroachers. The Committee also suggested that some of these lakes to be used for agricultural purposes. The Forest Department has undertaken cost-effective measures for conservation and maintenance of these tanks/lakes. Some of these lakes have been restored with state assistance and the participation of the urban community. It has rehabilitated 11 tanks with a water-spread area of 380.04 ha, spending Rs 313.75 lakh. During the restoration period, it also involved other departments such as BBMP, BDA, and BWSSB etc. In the process of restoration, it recovered about 80 acres of lake-beds from encroachers. Under the tree-park scheme funded by the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), the Forest Department and Lake Development Authority undertook the Social Forestry Scheme in the foreshore areas of these lakes and they are now being protected by a fence (LDA n.d.:10). The Norwegian financial assistance of Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 3.22 crore and local contribution of Rs 1.2 crore and Rs 3.08 crore were also used for the renovation of Hebbal and Madivala tanks respectively during the years 2002-2003 (GoK, LDA, INEP 2002:24). The Doddabommanahalli Lake was also restored with the Norwegian assistance of Rs 34] lakh. However, the progress made under all these schemes was rather slow than expected. This was due to inadequate resources and the lack of a separate agency for carrying out the restoration of lakes in Bangalore. In order to overcome this problem and rejuvenation of lakes/ tanks in and around Bangalore city, the state government set up an institution called Lake Development Authority (LDA) in 2002 at the instance of the Department of Forest, Environment and Ecology, on the lines of Jala Samavardhane Yojana Sangha (2002) which is facilitating planning and implementing rural tanks rejuvenation with community participation. The LDA is the first of its kind in the country, although 6 such agencies have been established in some urban areas of the country. They are: Bhoj Wetland Authority in Bhopal (MP); Loktak Development Authority (LDA), Manipur: J&K Lakes and Water Development Authority (J&K), Chilka Development Authority (CDA), Orissa; Hyderabad Urban Development Authority, AP; and Jal Vikas Samithi Udaipur, Rajasthan. In the beginning, the jurisdiction of the LDA was confined to the restoration of lakes in the city and later extended to the BMRDA area. From 2003, its jurisdiction was extended to other urban areas in Karnataka (City Municipal Corporations and Municipalities) for the restoration of the lakes. The LDA. in collaboration with other departments. such as Minor Imigation, Forest, Science and Technology, Fisheries and Horticulture, and18 Dying Lakes of the Garden City civic agencies such as BWSSB, BMRDA, BBMP, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (K U[DFC), Karnataka State Pollution Contro! Board (KSPCB) and the district administration, has been making efforts to rehabilitate lakes/tanks in urban areas of Kamataka, in general, and in and around Bangalore City, in particular. The LDA has adopted three broad approaches to save the lakes: a) Restoring lakes with the financial grant of the Union Ministry of Ecology and Environment under National Lake Conservation Programme (NLCP) with a state’s share of 30 per cent, which is granted to the Department of Forest. Environment and Ecology and LDA; 6) Inviting private participation in the restoration and maintenance of tanks; and c) Inviting NGOs, residents’ associations, corporate and private sectors in the restoration and maintenance of tanks. Under the first approach, the LDA in coordination with the Forest and other departments has taken several steps to restore some of the tanks, including desiltation and increasing their original storage levels, with a view to improving the status of groundwater and overall ecology of the region, 3.3. Investment on Lake Restoration in the City If we look at the restoration of the lakes under different schemes by different agencics. it is found that so far 46 lakes in the city have been rehabilitated through desilting, bunding and diversion of sewage and fencing with an investment of Rs 7,868.91 lakh (see Table 3.1 and Appendix III). Various agencies and departments have rehabilitated these lakes. A large proportion of these have been restored with grants from the Centrally- sponsored National Lake Conservation Programme (NLCP). The allocation by the NCLP alone for the restoration of 13 Bangalore lakes in the last five years from 2001-2002 to 2005-2006, accounted for Rs 4,734.42 lakh. Year-wise break-up shows that Rs 1,288.30 lakh was allocated in 2001-2002 as against the budget allocations of Rs }.076 lakh for the year 2002-2003, Rs 416 lakh in 2003-2004, Rs 1,249 lakh in 2004-2005 and Rs 704.64 lakh in 2005-2006. As against the total approval of Rs 4,734.42 lakh, a total of Rs 2,718.72 lakh was released accounting for 57.42 per cent. A total expenditure as against the amount released up to 2005-006 was about Rs 2,335.464 lakh, accounting for 85.90 per cent of the total amount released up to this period (Table 3.2).Rejuvenation of Lakes: Sanks 19 Table 3.1: Number of Lakes/Tanks Developed by Different Agencies in Bangalore City Name of the No of Lakes Investment Amount Agency Developed Available Lakes Rs Lakhs BDA 3 3 782.00 BDA/KUIDFC 5 3 757.00 NLCP/LDA/KFD 5 5 2,018.29 KFD 13 il 898.84 LDA 12 2 26.00 HUDCO/INEP 1 1 343.96 BBMP 1 1 300.00 KUIDFC 1 1 500.00 KFD/INEP 2 2 767.82 BBMP/BDA/KFD 1 1 400.00 BBMP/BWSSB 2 2 1,075.00 Total 46 32 7,868.91 Note: LDA- Lake Development Authority, BDA- Bangalore Development Authority, KFD- Karnataka Forest Department, BBMP-Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, BWSSB- Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board, HUDCO- Housing and Urban Development Corporation, K UIDFC- Kamataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation, INEP- Indo-Norwegian Environment Programme, NLCP- National Lake Conservation Programme. The investment made on the restoration of lakes so far is inadequate and is low compared to investment made on lakes in Hyderabad City. Till 2006, 46 lakes had been rehabilitated in Bangalore city, For 32 lakes, the investment figures stood at Rs 78.69 cr which worked out to Rs 1.71 crore per tank (see Table 3.2). This was low as comparcd to per tank restoration of lakes in Hyderabad, which worked out to Rs 9.36 crore per lake. In Hyderabad, 22 major lakes were rehabilitated by the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) with an investment of Rs 206 crore in the first phase of the Five Year Green Hyderabad Environment Programme (GHEP) launched in 2002 with the financial assistance from the Royal Netherlands Embassy. Delhi (HUDA 2004: 44). As indicated eartier, the average investment made on the restoration of each lake/tank was about Rs 1.71 crore, which worked out to Rs 5.78 lakh per hectare of waterspread area of the lake/tank as against the20 Dying Lakes of the Garden City requirement of Rs 6-7 lakh per hectare for larger tanks and Rs 10 lakh per hectare in the case of smaller tanks (GoK, LDA, INEP 2002:30). However, Rs 5.78 lakh per hectare investment in urban areas was even high as compared to the rural tank restoration. In the case of rural tanks, there was a provision of Rs 50,892 per hectare (Civil and Non-Civil Works) in the case of tanks irrigating less than 40 ha (Small Tanks) and Rs 29,152 per hectare in the case of tanks irrigating more than 40 ha (Large Tanks). Table 3.2: Grants Released by NLCP and Amount Spent During 2001-2006 in Bangalore City Rs Lakhs Projects Noof Amount} Amount Amount Releases Amount Spent Initiated Lakes Approved Released Spent as % of as % of Year Approval Releases 2001-02 4 1,288.30 1,050 876.729 81.50 83.50 2002-03 2 1,076.48 628.02 447.635 58.34 71.28 2003-04 2 416.00 391.52 373.82 94.12 95.48 2004-05 3 1,249.00 649.18 637.28 51.98 98.17 2005-06 2 704.64 NA NA NA NA Total 13 4,734.42 2,718.72 2.335.464 57.42 85.90 Source: LDA, Bangalore Against this scenario, if we examine the allocated resources in the plan documents and actual resources received by the LDA under the NCLP from its inception in 1999, there are wide differences in the amount allotted to lake restoration. The grant for restoration of lakes as per the Plan documents has been presented in Table 3.3. Since 1997 to 2007, only Rs 1,239.85 lakh has been allotted, which is very low compared to Rs 4,734 lakh since 2001 to 2005-2006 allotted by NCLP. The actual figures furnished by the LDA for 13 lakes from 2001-2002 to 2005-2006 indicate higher allocations under both plans (see Table 10}. As per this, the allocations for lakes/tank restoration in urban areas was Rs 1,288 lakh in 2001-2002 as against the budget allocations Rs t.076 lakh for the year 2002-2003 and Rs 416 lakh in 2003-2004 and 1,249 lakh in 2005-2006 and Rs 64 lakh in 2005- 2006. Altogether, an amount of Rs 4,734 lakh was allocated from 2001 to 2006. As against the total approval of Rs 4,734 lakh, a total of Rs 2,718.72 lakh was released accounting for 57,42 per cent. A total expenditure as against the amount released up to 2005-006 was about Rs 2,335.464 lakh, which accounted for 85.90 per cent of the total amount released up to this period (Table 3.2).Rejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 21 Table 3.3; Outlay and Expenditure on Lakes/Tanks Development in Bangalore City Rs lakh Year National Lake Integrated Tank Total Source Conservation Development Programme-2001 Programme in Bangalore City (IDPBC)-2001-2002 Out = Expendi- Out Expendi- Out Expendi- lay ture lay ture lay ture Ninth Plan 350 NA NA NA NA NA _ Ninth Plan 1997-02 (1997-2002, Vol.11:367). Tenth Plan 239.85 NA 25 NA NA NA __ Draft Annual 2002-07 Plan (2003-04 Vol.11:174). 1997-98 100 NA NA NA NA NA Ninth Plan (1997-02, Vol 11-448), 1998-99 100 NA 100 NA NA NA Annual Plan (1998-99: 209). 2001-2002 NA NA 50 NA NA 39.21 Annual Plan (2001 -2002, Vol. 1: 381). 2002-2003 250 NA 5 NA NA NA Draft Tenth Plan (2002- 07) and Annual Plan (2002-2003:- 123). 2003-2004 200* NA NA NA NA NA Draft Annual Plan (2003-04 VAL175). Note: 1, * Both Schemes were merged. 2. NA- Not available 3. Until Ninth Plan, the Centre financed 100 per cent to state under NLCP. Later, it was shared by Centre and state in the ratio of 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. 4. Under ITDPBC, it was 100 Per cent from the Centre. In the Eleventh Plan, the LDA has planned to rejuvenate another 60 lakes in the city at the cost of Rs 336 crore and 17 lakes in 14 districts of the state at the cost of Rs 80 crore. The detailed project reports (DPRS) for22 Dying Lakes of the Garden City some of these lakes have been prepared and submitted by the LDA which have been approved by the state government and sent for Union clearance and financial allocations under the NLCP programme (Table 3.4). Table 3.4: Six Caseades of Bangalore Lakes/Tanks Listed for Development Name of Noof Waterspread Amount Per Tank Per Hectare Lake Series Lakes Area Required Rs Lakh Rs Hectares Rs Crore Byramangala 1] 563.07 B 51.19 9,091 Hulimavu 8 404.1 4 50.51 12,499 Madhavara 10 222.96 30 22.30 10,002 Puttenahalli 5 58.35 12 11.67 20,000 Varthur 9 369.35 67 41.04 WAI Ycllamallappa 7 979.54 B 57.62 5,882 Chetty Total 60 2,597.37 336 5.60 12,938 Note: Draft proposals prepared and submitted to the Centre seeking grants under NCLP during | [th Plan. Source. LDA (nd), p-13. 3.4. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Poticy for Development of Lakes Public-Private Partnership strategy in respect of several projects in the country and the state has proved successful in terms of making make good impact and such investment is more productive and helpful to the society. Based on this experience, the Lake Development Authority started experimenting with this strategy in Bangalore City with a view to overcoming the shortage of funds for maintenance and prevention of encroachments. Similar attempt has also been made in Hyderabad city where Sarasu Sangrankahan Samities (Lake Conservation Societies) have come forward to take care of the lakes. From 2003-2004, the LDA in Bangalore started involving private agencies for the conservation of lakes and tanks in order to stop further degradation, pollution; and it also undertook development, beautification and maintenance of lakes under Develop/Operate/Transfer (DOT) or NON- DOT basis from interested private/public participants, including Registered NGO's, Charitable Trusts/Corporations/Corporate Houses/Business Houses/ Residents’ Associations for a period of 5 to 15 years. Under this strategy, itRejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 23 initiated two policies, namely, “Expression-of-Interest” (EOI) and “Adopt- A-Lake Scheme”. Under the Expression-of-Interest, 36 tanks were offered to private companies on a Develop-Operate-Transfer (DOT) basis for 15 years to develop the tanks in all respects including beautification. However, the response to it was poor. Only four lakes, namely, Nagavara, Vengaiahnakere, Hebbal and Agara were taken over by private companies (see Appendix IV). These companies were allowed to develop infrastructure and carry out commercial activities such as boating. providing tourist facilities in the tank area up to 5 per cent of the lake area. Under this scheme, the companies, which adopted the lakes, would have to make yearly payment to the LDA as per the lease agreement. The realisations per annum from the leasing out of four lakes were 173.56 lakh. (Nagavara Lake - Rs 40.23 lakh/ per annum, Vengaiahnakere- Rs 15.23 lakh/ PA, Hebbal Lake- Rs 72.10 lakh/PA and Agara Rs 46 lakh/PA) and 1.5 per cent increase on the amount every year for 15 years. However, the maintenance of these lakes by these agencies was far from satisfactory. Even today, we find a lot of water hyacinth covering a large portion of the Hebbal Lake. Under the Adopt-a-Lake scheme, 15 lakes were offered to the private companies and corporations located nearby these lakes. However, only five lakes were adopted by private companies, out of 15 lakes on Non- DOT basis for 5 years. These were: Sheelavanthanakere, Kelaginakere, Mahadevapura Lake, K undalahalli Lake and Chatllkere. Under this scheme, the adopters were required to carry out desiltation, strengthening of bunds, improvement of catchments and fencing of the lakes. They were prohibited from carrying out any commercial activity in these lakes other than allowing public for walking, jogging and carrying out low-key boating by collecting some user's fee for maintenance. The details about these adopted lakes have been presented in Appendix LV. 3.5. Impact of PPP Although the initiation of PPP appears to be sound and useful, it drew wide criticism. First, privatisation has been criticised for taking away the CPRs from the community enjoying these resources. The farmers, fishermen, washer men who have depended extensively on these sources in some of the places in urban areas have lost their rights to earn their livelihood from these resources. Already. the lease holders are not allowing any of the stake holders of common property resources to make use of these. If this continues, the community or the government may find it difficult to use the tank water in case of any unforeseen water crisis in the urban24 Dying Lakes of the Garden City areas. To ease the drinking water supply in city, the BWSSB is planning to utilise the lakes for recycling the water for the use of urbanites. In this kind of situation, it is difficult to take back as the lakes have been leased out for a period of 15 years. Secondly, the LDA which was established for the protection of lakes has been involved in leasing out the lakes on the pretext of inadequate funds and insufficient staff for maintenance. In reality, it is involved in profit making by way of collecting rent from the lease holders. Thirdly, lease holders have started boating, food courts and other fills and are commercially exploiting the lakes. One can find a lot of visitors parking bikes and cars around the lake roads causing traffic inconvenience. Fourth, the builders who adopted the lakes have slowly started encroaching on the lakes/tanks and alse letting out sewage into the lakes. Already, the Byrasandra lake teaseholder, Bagmane Developer, has encroached 1.15 acres of the tank bed for the construction of a road (22 guntas) and Tech Park (33 guntas) (Anonymous 2007a and 2007b). Similar incident has been observed in the case of Mahadevapura Lake. The company which has adopted this lake, instead of protecting it, has started constructing a road on the tank bed. The local Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) petitioned the Karnataka High Court and the court has directed the State government and the Lake Development Authority to take appropriate steps for protecting and preserving the Mahadevapura Lake. The LDA assured the court that it has taken all the necessary steps to protect the lake (Anonymous 2008c). In addition to above, the above PPP initiatives of LDA were not well appreciated by the society. The ecologists criticised the leasing out of lakes to private agencies for commercial activities in and around the tanks. They claimed that this move was against the high court verdict, which had ruled out commercialisation of the tank area. Recently, a Public Interest Litigation case has been filed in High Court of Karnataka, challenging the decision of the LDA in leasing of lakes/tanks to private agencies. This is because the private sector has started exploiting the lakes. The court and the government have taken a serious note of all these developments and have taken a few initiatives to get them back to the government agencies. Hearing a PIL case on November 4, 2008, the high court passed an interim order restraining the Government and private parties from proceeding with any further investment or development of lakes based on the privatisation (PPP) model. Recently, the high court has directed the LDA and the government not to extend the lease agreement after the expiry period of 15 years.Rejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 25 3.6. Condition of Lakes in Some Cities in the State and their Rehabilitation There are 36,686 tanks in rural and urban areas of the state. However, reliable data on urban tanks and lakes are not available, Rough estimates on urban tanks show that there are about 3,500 lakes (Anonymous 2005b) in urban areas of the state, which had been constructed largely to meet the drinking water needs of the towns concerned (LDA no date: 6). Except this, there is no other information on urban lakes in the state. This limits proper understanding of the status of urban lakes and tanks. However, a few reports on urban lakes/tanks highlight the worsening conditions of tanks/lakes in other urban parts of the state. The Channapatna tank in Hassan town was built in the I 1th century. [t had a water-spread area of over 200 acres and was a source of ground water for over 2,500 open and bore-wells in the vicinity. This tank was recently converted into bus and railway stations. Another five tanks- Hunisekere tank, Beemahalli Kere Gavenahalli Kere and Sathysmangala Kere in the same town - were also converted into residential layouts. In Hubli-Dharwad cities, several lakes have been converted into stadiums, shopping complexes and residential plots. In Kolar, the sewage water has been allowed to flow into the Ammani tank, apart from dumping of urban solid waste. Today, this tank has become useless due to the growth of infected weeds and has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. In Mysore, the famous Doddakere, Jivanrayanakatte and Subbarayana Lake have been converted as exhibition and football ground and park respectively. Doddakere in Tumkur has also choked up for public use and residential purposes (Sawhney et a/ 2004:210). Encroachment of tanks is another problem in many of the towns and cities. In Tumkur town, Chola king Rajendra Chola had built the Ammanikere in 1130 AD. Now, it has been encroached upon to the extent of 508 acres accounting for 60.84 per cent of the waterspread area of the tank (Devaraj 2005). A few lakes in urban areas of the state have been rejuvenated under various programmes. Till today, 14 tanks have been developed. The investment figures available for 12 lakes indicate that an amount of Rs 3670.62 lakh has been spent on these lakes (Table 3,5, and also see Appendix V), The average investment per lake accounts for Rs 305.85 lakh.26 Dying Lakes of the Garden City Table 3.5: Number of Lakes/Tanks Developed by Different Agencies in Other Urban Parts of Karnataka Name of the Agency —_—No of lakes Investment Amount Developed available lakes Rs lakhs ADB/NLCP 4 3 876.6 ADB/NLCP/KUIDFC 1 1 85.61 KUDCEMP 2 2 121 NLCP/LDA 1 1 564 LDA/DC 6 5 2,023.41 Total 14 2 3,670.62 Note: LDA- Lake Development Authority, KUIDFC- Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation, NLCP- National Lake Conservation Programme. KUDCEMP- Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project, DC- Deputy Commissioner, ADB- Asian Development Bank. 3.7. Reasons for the Failure of Rejuvenation Efforts Out of nearly 2000 lakes in the 6 cascades of Bangalore and its periphery, 46 lakes have been already rehabilitated with lot of investment. These rehabilitated lakes and amount spent have been shown in Table 3.2 and Appendix III. However, many of the rejuvenated lakes/ tanks do not look like they have been rehabilitated. This is clear from the statement made by the state chief minister on April 25th 2006 while visiting the Sarakki Lake for which Rs 3 crores had been spent (Anonymous 2006 b). Similar is the case with other rehabilitated lakes. The following reasons would explain the sick status of these rejuvenated tanks/lakes. 3.8, Multiple Agencies for Lake Developments The tanks in rural areas are under two agencies. The tanks with an area of less than 40 ha are under the control of Zilla Panchyats and the tanks above 40 ha and up to 200 ha are under the Water resources Department (Minor Irrigation). However in Bangalore city, they are under various departments and agencies such as the Forest, Water Resources (Minor Irrigation), Zilla Pancyats, Tourism and Horticulture and BDA, BBMP and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), City Municipal Councils (CMCs) and all these different agencies are expected to coordinate the rejuvenationRejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 2? and maintenance works of these lakes and tanks. However, the experience indicates that the multiple agencies approach has failed in all respects in protecting the existing ones. Under multiple agencies, coordination between them was expected on a sustainable basis. However, it has been observed that there was very little coordination between LDA and other bodies. For instance, the LDA had written letters to the City Municipal Council (CMC), Bommanahalli, for the eviction of encroachers of Puttenahalli Lake, Doddabegur tank, but the local body did not act upon this (Kushalappa 2005). Many agencies, rather than working together, blame each other for the sorry state of affairs, triggering a blame game between various civic authorities, For instance, the issue of pollution of the Bellandur Lake was raised at the Lok Adalat organised at Bellandur on | 7th October 2006, by the Bellandur Gram Panchayat. The Lake Development Authority, Kamataka State Pollution Control Board, Bangalore Development Authonty. Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board participated in the meeting. BWSSB representatives accused the BDA and CMCs for indiscriminately issuing construction permits around the lake bed, contributing to the sewage collection, and also blamed revenue department for encroachments (Anonymous (2006f). Another incident which highlights the absence of mutual consent was observed in the case of privatisation of lakes. During hearing of a PIL case by high court on privatisation of lakes, the BWSSB accused that the LDA had not obtained its consent before privatisation of lakes. There is also no co-ordination between different agencies. For instance, the LDA says it is the duty of the State Pollution Control Board to see that the industrial effluents and domestic wastes are not dumped into the water bodies. Similarly, the BWSSB has to prevent the flow of sewage water into the water bodies. But, many a time, the BWSSB has said that it is the duty of the Lake Development Authority to take care of the tanks. In this manner, each of these agencies tries to pass on the buck to the other. 3.9. Lack of Integrated Approach There is also no integrated approach/policy of several bodies with regard to tanks. Noticing this, during the hearing of a PIL case in 1998 relating to water supply to Bellandur, the high Court (Lok Adalat) of Kamataka directed civic authorities to identify all tanks and lakes where sewage waste 1s let out and prepare a comprehensive project for rejuvenation of such water bodies. The tribunal has also asked the BWSSB, BDA, BBMP and other agencies to coordinate in the implementation of the project28 Dying Lakes of the Garden City (Anonymous (2009c). Despite this direction, no such policy has been prepared and implemented. This fact is clear from the highly polluted lakes and heavy encroachments. 3.10. Lack of Vigil on Lakes/Tanks Several agencies have spent crores of rupees on the restoration and beautification of lakes. But most of these lakes are either dead or filled with polluted water due to the absence of strict vigil in terms of preventing all kinds of wastes being dumped. Today, many tanks are filled with all kinds of wastes such as poultry, hospital, households and industries. 3.11. Garbage Flow into Lakes The drainage system and garbage collection in many localities are very poor particularly in revenue layouts. During the rainy season, all these wastes reach the lakes, thereby polluting them. The lenient attitude of the government in preventing the unplanned growth of revenue layouts is responsible for this. 3.12. By-Passing of Court Directions and Laws The rules and court orders prohibit the encroachment of the lakes which are part of the common property resources. The greedy officials and land grabbers manipulate the rules and encroach on the tank properties. Lack of strict rules and regulations in terms of preventing encroachments and punishing the encroachers and officials who helped them by taking bribe are responsible for the rampant encroachment. 3.13. Leasing of Lakes by LDA to Private Builders and Hotels Another glaring mistake by the Lake Development Authority relates to leasing of lakes to private agencies after rejuvenating them under different programmes. This action is defended by the LDA on the grounds that it does not have adequate resources to maintain them in future. The private lease holders have started exploiting these community assets for commercial purposes even without showing any concessions to the people, who were stake holders of the tank in that particular area before. Some of them have also encroached upon the lakes for their buildings and extending tech parks. Many of those who have adopted lakes instead of developing the lakes are using them for releasing their apartment sewage. These lakes are in no way different from many of the non-adopted/ leased out lakes/tanks.Rejuvenation of Lakes/Tanks 29 3.14. Corruption Several builders have got approval of plans for construction of apartments around Jakes by paying bribes to officials and have made sure that the drainage is conveniently open to the nearby lakes.CHAPTERIV IMPACT OF VANISHED AND ENCROACHED LAKES 4.1. Introduction The disappearance and neglect of lakes/tanks in urban areas has triggered a whole spectrum of issues such as reduction in the lifespan of the tanks, water pollution. ground-water depletion, encroachments, health hazards, deprivation of livelihood of fishermen and agriculturists, scarcity of drinking water. All these issues have affected the society and the environment in several ways. Here we attempt to analyse the impact of this process. 4.2. Decline in the Number of Lakes It is a well-known fact that several lakes in the city have disappeared as a result of rapid urbanisation. But the available data on lakes in Bangalore Rural and Urban districts show that there was no considerable decline in the number of tanks and the irrigation potential created. In 1989-90, there were 576 lakes in Bangalore Urban district and they declined to 559 in 1993-94 as per the Minor Irrigation Department records. But there was no considerable decline in the gross irrigation potential created during these periods, whereas the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) data show that 682 tanks have remained the same since 1986-87 to date (see Table-2,1)}. But the net irrigated area declined from 8,682 ha in 1986-87 to 2,640 ha in 2003-2004. However, Deepa, Ramachandra and Kiran (1996) of the Indian Institute of Science have shown that there were 379 tanks in two taluks of Bangalore Urban district in 1973. Of these, [38 were located in the north and 241 in the south taluk. These came down to 96 in the north (506.87 sq km) taluk and 150 in the south (594.96 sq km) taluk in 1996, a decline of 35.09 per cent between 1973 and 1996 (cited in GoK 2001:8). A recent study by IISc shows that the area of the tanks that was 2,342 ha in 1973 came down to 918 ha in 2007 with a decline of 60.80 per cent. The proportion of tank area in Bangalore also came down from 3.40 per cent in 1973 to 1.47 per cent in 2007. The above studies attribute rapid urbanisation as the prime reason for the loss of tank area. The comparison of 1930 Survey Department maps and 2005 satellite maps of ISRO also show that £5 to 20 per cent of tank-bed land has been encroached upon (Deepa Kurup and Divya Gandhi 2008). However, the decline shown by the above study does not indicate actual decline because the study by Deepa, Ramachandra andImpact of Vanished and Encroached Lakes 31 Kiran (1996) might have considered all classes of tanks in 1973. which amounted to 379 tanks, But, in subsequent years, it might have considered only the lakes which had a command area of above 40 ha which totaled to 246 tanks. This observation is valid if we look at the data of DES on lakes. According to DES data. the total number of tanks remained the same at 315 in both north and south taluks and 562 in Bangalore Urban district right from 1986 to 2002. The recent data with LDA, supplied by the Minor Irrigation Department, also shows that there were 118 tanks in Bangalore north taluk, 197 in south taluk and 244 in Anckal taluk, altogether a total of 589 tanks in Bangalore Urban district in 1993-94 and 560 in 2000-2001. The above trends have not shown any definite dectine in the number of lakes and urigation potential created. Further, they go against the commonly held view that the urbanisation of Bangalore caused disappearance of many tanks and irrigation potential created. Irrespective of the differing estimates, one thing is clear that many tanks and their irrigated area have disappeared in and around Bangalore (see Appendix I). 4.3. Loss of Irrigated, Water-spread and Catchment Areas The immediate impact of disappearance/ and deterioration of lakes is the loss of irrigated area. However, data on this aspect are not readily available to assess the impact. However, one can roughly estimate the shrinkage of irrigated area based on the Minor Irrigation Department data of the state as a whole. As per the latest data, there are 36,686 tanks in the state with a water-spread area of about 4,38,963 ha and a command area of 6,90,000 hectares, which work out to 18.82 ha of irrigated area per tank and an average water-spread area of 1] ha. If we go by this norm, the disappearance of 195 tanks in Bangalore caused the loss of irrigated area of about 2,540 ha and water-spread area of about 1,485 ha. Altematively, the loss of irrigated area of 24 tanks listed by the Lakshman Rau Committee Report and as per the Census 198] accounts for 506.90 ha, which amounts to 21.12 ha per tank. If we apply this norm, the loss of irrigated area of all 195 tanks works out to 4,461.60 ha. Overall. the loss of irrigated and water- spread area per lake in the city is ] 8.82 ha to 22.88 ha and 11 ha to 12.92 ha respectively. In addition to this, water-spread area of the existing tanks located in the periphery of Bangalore also led to lower water storages, causing decline in the net irrigated area and net sown area, leading to a sharp decline in the agricultural output. If we look at the same fact in another way, the decline in imigated area in Bangalore Urban district is even higher than the state average. As32 Dying Lakes of the Garden City per the DES data, the net irrigated area by tanks in Bangalore Urban district declined from 8,004 ha in the tricnnium ending 1988-89 to 2,319 ha in the triennium ending 2004-2005 (Table 4.1), The corresponding proportion of the tank irrigated in the total net irrigated area from al! sources in the urban district also declined from 47.97 per cent to 18.25 per cent during the same period, This was due to breaching and encroachment of several lakes/tanks. The disappearance of the lakes in the city also led to the loss of catchment area. In Bangalore, the loss of independent and intercepted catchment was 869.70 sq km and 1,209 sq km respectively. This estimate is obtained based on the average catchment area of tanks in rural areas which worked gut to 11.18 sq km (Thippaiah 1998:79), Table 4.1 Gross and Net Irrigated Area by Tanks in Karnataka and Bangalore Rural & Urban Districts Area: Hectares Year Karnataka Bangalore Rural —_ Bangalore Bangalore & Urban Districts Rural District. Urban District Gross Net Gross Net Grass Net Gross Net 1988-89TE 3.27424 2.80465 35,007 28613 25,849 20610 9.158 8004 2004-05 TE 1,86,087 1,68,,591 18,282 16,803 15,796 14248 2486 2,319 Note: TE-Triennium ending Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Karnataka, Bangalore 4.4. Human Suffering The loss of irrigated area and the resultant decline in production are directly related to the conversion of lakes into non-agricultural purposes, But the generation of wealth for the urban society is many times higher than the loss of production. But the farmers who had lost these lands are living in miserable conditions. No doubt many of the farmers, who had owned land under these lakes/tanks in the command and catchments. were paid compensation at the time of acquisition, but that compensation neither provided a permanent solution to the loss of their land nor assured a good future to their children. More than this, 95 per cent of the farmers who had owned land under these tanks were small and marginal farmers growing sugarcane, paddy and vegetables with assured income. The acquisition of their land has put them in miserable conditions today. This fact is evident from the recently conducted study by the Institute for Social and EconomicImpact of Vanished and Encroached Lakes 33 Change (ISEC), Bangalore, in Kembathahalli village in Bangalore South taluk, where the farmers had lost theirs land for the formation of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) sites. According to this study. a large part of the compensation they received was spent on unproductive purposes. Further, they lost their agricultural skills and livestock. The agricultural machinery and implements became redundant. In addition to this, their housing conditions have not improved as expected. They are still living in their old houses. Many of them now depend on urban unorganised secter for employment after losing a decent livelihood from agriculture (Ramaswamy 2006). The same would have happened to those who had lost tank-irrigated lands around Bangalore. 4.5. Loss of Drinking Water Sources Tanks were almost supplying 1/3 of the total demand of the city. This source completely disappeared as a result of the destruction of tanks (GoK 2002-2003:3). The existing ones are also largely encroached upon and have lost not only their water-holding capacity but also potable water. The recharging capacity of lakes has also been reduced due to non-filling and loss of water-spread area and storages. This situation has forced the civic bodies to shift from tank source to alternative sources for supplementing drinking water, though at a high cost. Today, the city of Bangalore is getting water from the river Cauvey which is 140 km away at an enormous price. According to BWSSB, the total cost of producing and supplying 2,47,382 million liters of water during 2001 was Rs 5.722 million, which worked out to Rs 23.13 per liter as against Rs $.98 in 1991 (Sastry 2004). This cost per litre is exorbitant when compared to many metros in the country. Much of this has been accounted for power cost. It is stated that the power bill comes to about Rs 21 crore per month. The other cities in Karnataka, which were, in the past, dependent on tanks for drinking water, are now mostly relying on other sources of water, paying a heavy price. From Table 4.2, itis clear that only 2.40 per cent of the urban areas depend on tank water for drinking purposes and another 4.81 per cent depended on this source along with other sources (see Table 4.2).34 Dying Lakes of the Garden City Table 4.2: Sources of Drinking Water in Karnataka Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) 2004 Source No. of ULBs _% to Total Bore wells (BW) 40 19.23 Tank 5 2.40 Open wells + Bore wells (OW &BW) 6 2.88 Open well ! 0.48 BW+tank 5 2.40 River 2 53.85 BWtriver 34 16.35 Tank+river 4 1.02 BWHanktriver 1 0.48 Total 208* 100 Note: *- Local Bodies fall under the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board Source: Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board. Cited by S$ Puttaswamaiah (2004:59). 4.6. Reduction of Storage Due to Encroachment and Sedimentation The lakes have become dumping grounds for all kinds of waste materials - both solid and liquid. Industries, hospitals, poultries, contractors. individual households and the BBMP dump their wastes into the lake beds. This has led to water pollution and silt formation in the lakes affecting the water-holding capacity of these tanks. The sedimentation has also reduced the water impounding capacity of the lakes. The loss of water-holding capacity due to siltatiion/sedimentation has been estimated to be more in urban areas (Nayak 2004: 44) as compared to 23-30 per cent in the case of rural tanks (ANSSIRD 1999:1). The loss of water depth and shallowness has Jed to drying up of tanks due to evaporation, leading to depletion of ground water levels. The ground water, which could be tapped earlier in the city at 80-90 feet, has gone down to 400-500 feet (LDA n.d: 6). The growth of water hyacinth and consumption of water by these weeds have also reduced the water-holding capacity of several lakes in the city. The encroachment of tank bed areas by land mafia in the adjoining areas too has significantly contributed to the low storage levels.Impact of Vanished and Encroached Lakes 35 4.7. Non-Filling of Lakes The complete disappearance of independent and intercepted catchments of lakes, encroachments of drainages and the loss of connectivity between the tanks due to breaching and diversion of waterways in the residential layouts have led to non- filling of tanks in Bangalore and its penphery for so many years, even in normal rainfall years. In 2005, the city experienced 1,200 mms of rain, but several lakes in the city were not filled due to inlet problem (Anonymous 2005a). This ts also evident from low water levels in 60 lakes in the city in 2005 as per the Lake Development Authority. Several lakes in the peripheral areas of the city have also not been filled for several years due to catchment problems. The Hoskote tank, which is close to the city, is a fine example in this context. 4.8. Pollution of Water In the heart of the city and extensions, the encroachment of tanks by individuals and public agencies has made the tanks not only very small but also reduced the storage levels. These encroached bodies have been used by public and private agenctes for easy dumping of urban solid wastes, debris, domestic sewage, industrial effluents and immersion of Ganesha Idols. This has contributed to the deteriorating water quality, making it unfit for human consumption. Many studies on the quality of lake water in the city have found that water in the lakes contains high levels of phosphate, sulphate, calcium and alkalies which make the water very hard. The presence of high metal toxity in the lake water prevents the farmers from using it for irrigation. The polluted water of these tanks also pollutes other water bodies due to the chain of tanks system. A study conducted by the Kamataka Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on 70 lakes shows that they are highly polluted. According to this study, 31 lakes/ tanks in Bangalore were being used for dumping domestic sewage, 5 for both domestic and industrial sewage and 32 for solid waste (Narayan 2005). All these have made the tanks highly polluted, with bactenal count and dissolved solids twice the permitted levels, and even the dissolved oxygen levels are several times lees than the benchmarks. This is also clear from the testing of water from || lakes by LDA in coordination with KSPCB between January 2003 and March 2003. According to this study. the water inall the 11 lakes was found to be highly polluted and the content of dissolved oxygen, very low. In many of these lakes, the oxygen levels were found to be below the desired level of 4 mg/1, indicating organic pollution (see Table 4.3). The BWSSB has established plants in the major valleys for treating36 Dying Lakes of the Garden City sewage water before letting into lakes which are not functioning well. The treatment plant built at Challaghatta valley to treat sewage water before letting into Bellandur Lake is hardly treating 20 MLD per day as against the inflow of 384 MLD per day. Besides this, a private firm, managing this unit, is operating the unit only for a few hours in a day in order to save electricity cost. Like in Bangalore, the sewage has been allowed into the lakes in other urban parts of Kamataka. In Dharwad and Hubli cities, the sewage is allowed into Sadhanakere and Unkal lakes respectively. Similarly, the lakes in Rajasthan, Srinagar (Dal Lake), Bhopal, Hyderabad, Naintal and other cities in India and the Laguna Bay in Philippines (HUDA 2004) are also facing the problem of sewage inflow. It is estimated that 6 million litres of sewage and 25 tonnes of solid waste every day have turned the lakes into cesspools in Rajasthan. Table 4.3: Pollution Loads of Lakes in Bangalore SLNo. Name of the Lake PH DO Mg/L_ BOD Mg/L I Benniganahalli Lake 8.19.0 44-84 13.6-150.0 2 Deepanjali Lake 75-76 2.8-4.4 13-15 3 Jaraganahalli Lake 7O1-8.2 1.2-10.0 40-130 4 Karithimmanahalli Lake 74-80 Nill 235-260 5 Kempambudhi Lake 7.2-8.0 Nil 80-190 6 Madivala Lake 7.5-8.4 0.5-6.4 6.9-37.0 7 Nagavare Lake 7.5-7.7 0-05 16-125 8 Nayandahalli Lake 7.2-8.0 0-8.1 80-180 9 Sankey Tank 8.4-8.5 64-69 6.0-9.3 10° Yengaihankere Lake 9,6-9.8 4.6-8.1 17,5-75.0 i Yediyur Lake 75-8.0 2,8-12.7 130-360 Note: DO = Dissolved Oxygen (Normal Level: more than 4ppm). BOD = Biological Oxygen Demand (Normal Level: 3ppm) |.Figures listed above indicate minimum - maximum levels. 2. Water samples were collected from different points in the lake. 3. The samples were taken between January 2003 and March 2003. Source: GoK (2002-2003). 4.9. Pollution of Groundwater Indiscriminate discharge of domestic sewage and industrial effluents into lakes not only pollutes the lakes but also contaminates water, which in turn percolates to aquifers, thereby creating a breeding ground for pathogenic