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Killing our lakes - Hebbal/Nagavara Lake example
Written By Rithesh - 28 April, 2009
Bangalore Hebbal Lake lakes BWSSB Water Citizen Reports KSPCB
See the image below - it shows the Hebbala and Nagavara lakes. I am told by the locals that the area covered in the red boundary once formed an elaborate and huge lake system. The system first got divided by the Bellary road and the region right to the road subsequently dried out. This region was taken over by the UAS and they used it for rice/paddy crop experiments.
Next the ring road happened. The section of the ring road next to the Hebbal lake was once the lake itself. Then the flyover happened. Land was acquired from UAS to build the flyover. Hebbal flyover is very huge and covers a lot of ground area. They could have chosen to have the lake bellow the flyover once it was complete - but instead it was turned into a land fill. It was a natural low lying region and water used to collect in the region during the rainy seasons helping ground water restoration.
Then BMTC acquired more land from UAS to construct their depot (indicated by the pink boundary) This is the depot where you will find most of BMTC's volvo's.
The region indicated by the yellow boundary was is relatively on a higher level and turned dry (the water flowing into the system was reduced due to the ring road and surrounding roads). In this area, initially few settlements came up, then a huge church came up and now some unknow person is filling up the rest of the region and putting up a stone boundary around it (untill sometime back an unknow education trust had put up their board there).
The part of the lake to the right of Kempapura road is also almost dry and i am sure is being encroached upon.
During rainy seasons, the surrounding regions - kempapura, kodigehalli, bhuvaneshawri nagar face flash floods. Also these lakes fill up to the brim and sometimes over flow. The problem clearly is not the lack of water - we just don't have the capacity to store it - we are killing our lakes!!!
COMMENTS
Rithesh - 28 April, 2009 - 23:19
Especially area A. Until recently, it was huge barren land with boards of random educational trusts and companies. Now all of a sudden, massive leveling of land is taking place and the area is being stone walled. There is also a huge church adjacent to this region.
Get info on the ownership of the land
nl.srinivas - 29 April, 2009 - 02:38
Is it not possible to get the information on the ownership of the land? This should not be very difficult but you may have to face the wrath of land sharks:-)
RTIs to check lake area encroachment, but careful
silkboard - 29 April, 2009 - 02:55
Pointing this out to BWSSB/BBMP should be our job. but lets do it carefuly
Via RTIs to BBMP/BWSSB, we can take these 4 lakes (Hebbal, Nagavara, Varthur, Belandur) and ask for info that will give us details of "sanctioned" construction activity in adjoining areas.
What should we ask for? I am not knowledgable here - someone from real estate world (mcadambi?) would know what things we need to ask.
To be sure, and careful, We don't need to go into who is doing some construction that may be illegal. We can focus only on pointing out the fact that illegal construction may be happening in these areas.
Need just 2-3 people for doing these RTIs, not more.
Hebbal Nagavara Lake area Photo timeline 2000-2007
Bengloorappa - 29 April, 2009 - 08:00
I took some time to make a photo timeline of the lake bed area encroachments, courtesy - Big Brother.
[flickr-photo:id=3485567775.size=o]
Nov 13 2000
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_lLv85PG9vk0/SfgD2mTaMUI/AAAAAAAACSY/mztP1BEWZbY/01-Jan-21-2004002.jpg
Jan 21 2004
[flickr-photo:id=3485568001.size=o]
Jan 23 2005
[flickr-photo:id=3486384414.size=o]
Dec 08 2005
[flickr-photo:id=3486384556.size=o]
Dec 29 2006
[flickr-photo:id=3486384674.size=o]
May 17 2007
Its all here for us to see.
Regards,
Bengloorappa
[Uploaded images to Flickr since some members had difficulty seeing the images. Could not salvage the one for 21st Jan 2004 - Moderator]
silkboard - 28 April, 2009 - 18:45
Putting an embeded map in here for ease of pan and zoom on the area.
If I get Rithesh right, he suspects that point A and B marked below could be encorachments on the lake/bed area.
[gmap markers=letters::13.044829655345481,77.59924364159815 + 13.046300590906174,77.6133813872002 |zoom=14 |center=13.044445719485713,77.60381698608398 |width=500px |height=400px |control=Small |type=Hybrid]
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