Lakes die, city turns dry

Lakes die, city turns dry
SUNAYANA SURESH
BENGALURU


T hink lakes in Bengaluru, and you can barely count five of them today. The city that once boasted over 100 big tanks is now home to just a few beautified water bodies.

Rapid urbanisation, expansion and unplanned growth has dried the city up of its natural beauty.

“The city was once filled with so many lakes, but today most of these are gone and we have big residential colonies on top of them. Did you know that areas like Banashankari were built on top of big tanks? People today don’t even know Chennammana kere (lake) or Koramangala kere existed,” says Ananda Rao, retired professor.

The Karnataka Golf Association, off Airport Road, stands on the Challaghatta Lake.

Can you imagine the big Majestic Bus Stand was once the Dharmambudhi Tank built by Kempegowda. The National Games Complex in Ejipura stands on the Koramangala Lake. The Kanteerava Sports Complex once used to be the Sampangi Lake. “The sudden disappearance of many of these lakes has led to many types of plants and animals disappearing from the city. This is bad for the ecosystem,” says Chetan Kumar, environment activist.

Banashankari 2nd Stage, Padmanabhanagar and the areas close by were all built on the Chennamma Tank.

This was one of the biggest tanks. Puttennahalli Tank near J.P. Nagar 6th Phase is now half gone, because of big apartment complexes.

The host of concrete edifices that lie between Queen’s Circle and Cantonment Railway Station like the Guru Nanak Bhavan, Badminton Stadium, etc.

have been developed over what was once Miller’s Tank.

“We do have some good lakes like Agara Lake, but anyone who lived in the city a decade ago will know the difference. The road had two beautiful lakes on either side, but today, with expansion and building ring roads, we have one small water stretch,” says Srinath B., urban planning expert. And the number of lakes have disappeared in a big way.

“It is said that Bengaluru once boasted of 141 lakes. Today many of these cannot be traced, seven are seen as small pools of water. Many of these big lakes are now encroached by either slum dwellers or builders.

Others have just dried up because of poor maintenance and still others, given away by the government. Today, we have hardly any lakes left,” says an official in the BDA. What’ll become of the few lakes left? Only time will tell…