Look who’s eaten up Arakere lake

While city residents have been voicing concerns over the death of lakes in the city, BBMP has blatantly violated rules to encroach Arakere lake to build a school.

According to residents in the area, the school building, work for which began in 2009, is yet to be completed. “Nothing is hidden here. It is obvious that the school is an encroachment, considering that it is well within the fencing of the lake boundary. Residents have been voicing concerns over disappearing lakes and the city is facing a water crisis. And yet, a lake is encroached to build a school,” said Meetha Walavalkar of the Arakere Neighbourhood Improvement Trust (ANIT).

According to residents, authorities also encroached land to construct a road just outside the lake’s boundary. The road goes towards Hulimavu.

They say these encroachments are detailed in a DPR prepared by the BDA as part of a project to restore the lake.

“The DPR shows that an approach road was laid to connect Arakere village from Bannerghatta road using the lake area. It also shows that the school has been built over the original outlet drain,” said Meetha, adding that without the outlet, there is a risk of the lake flooding.

Explaining how the encroachments happen, Meetha said: “The first phase is when ‘someone’ starts dumping debris in the lake. At first there is just a lot of mud and bricks. A little later, the mud is levelled and one fine day you see that there is some kind of construction happening.”

All around the Arakere lake, the first phase of encroachment is visible. Mud and construction debris are slowly eating up the lake.

Though the DPR for a restoration project was given to the Lake Development Authority a few months ago, work cannot begin unless the tahsildar’s office conducts a survey of the lake area.

Meetha said: “The tahsildar’s office has to do a survey and give an official report on encroachments. The authorities concerned can issue a notice for removing encroachments only after this. Right now, BDA has fenced the boundary of the lake to the extent, to make sure no further encroachment happens. We will be working closely with tahsildar’s office and other authorities to remove the encroachments,” she said.

According to civic groups, the number of lakes in the city has come down to around 200 from 1,600 a few centuries ago. BBMP’s chief conservator of forests, Brijesh Kumar at a recent get-together of various groups working on reviving lakes said BBMP is working on a draft policy to hand over lakes to the citizens for day to day maintenance. But in Arakere, BBMP has been violating rules to encroach the lake.