Walk, jog or go biking on this lake!

Walk, jog or go biking on this lake!
Pollution In Uttarahalli Lake Leaves It Nearly Dry Cost Of Revival Is Rs 4 Crore
The Times of India

Bangalore: Walking across a 28-acre water body — it’s no yogic miracle. The residents of Uttarahalli do it every day.
A four-inch solid layer of sunbaked water hyacinth, garbage and mud covers the 200-year-old Uttarahalli-Doraikere Lake, once dedicated to the ruler of Magadi.
Decades of neglect — by the Lake Development Authority (LDA), the forest department and the local residents — has meant that this rainfed lake is nearly dry. And it is no surprise that the bacterial count and dissolved solids are as much as double the permitted level. The dissolved oxygen level is 20 times less than the benchmark for polluted lakes.
The only aquatic life in the lake are African catfishes. The breeding of these is banned all over the world, as these air-breathing fishes wipe off the entire aquatic life and survive on garbage, faeces and solid waste found in water.
With sewage flowing in from Kumaraswamy layout, ISRO layout and Gowdanapalya and slaughter houses dumping waste unchecked, it is only raising a stink in the area. Added to this is debris, which is drying up the lake and helping encroachment.
LDA records show that 25 guntas of the lake have been eaten up at the eastern and the southern end of the water body. But these are just the official figures. “The ground reality is there for all to see,’’ said Mahesh Thadani, a resident, pointing to hundreds of hutments which have come up on all sides of the lake.
Interestingly, neither the efforts of resident welfare associations nor the area MP Tejaswini Sri Ramesh have made a difference. Even a letter from former chief minister N Dharam Singh had not prompted the authorities to take any action.
“Money is the main constraint for the revival of this lake,’’ said an LDA official. There is a meagre allotment of Rs 2 crore (Rs 1 crore for fencing and Rs 1 crore for beautification) for more than 200 lakes in Bangalore. But the estimated cost for the revival of Uttarahalli-Doraikere Lake alone is around Rs 4 crore!
“How does one expect to take up these works then? Give us the money and we will restore it today,’’ said the official.
No grasslandthis!