Resident complaint landfills have been dumped into the lake bed to make it a farmland.
By Ambalika Banerjee
Encroachment inside the buffer zone of Pattandur Agrahara Lake 54 and road construction around the area is being a threat to the life of the 1000 years old lake in Whitefield. Residents near the lake body say no cleaning process is being done and the quality of the water is deteriorating.
Harishankar, resident of Whitefield, said, “There is no lake here. I have only seen trees and plants here all throughout, the water is dirty and is not being cleaned at all.” Several citizen activists groups in Whitefield have filed PIL to save the lake from encroachment.
Sandeep Anirudhan, Co-founder of Namma Whitefield, said, “The lake is about 1000 yrs old, built by the Chola dynasty and has been encroached by a private party called Muniappa, during the 70s fake documents were created to claim the lake to be a farmland. We had two huge protests in the last two years and have filed petition which grabbed the attention of State government. The BDA which is the custodian of the body has not taken the position of it.”
Resident complaint landfills have been dumped into the lake bed to make it a farmland. Buildings have been built around the buffer zone area of the lake. BDA presently has the custodian of the lake body and responsible for the revival of the lake.
However official from BDA advises the lake comes under the custodian of BBMP. Mahadeve Gowda E , Executive Engineer East of BDA, said, “ Agrahara lake is not under BDA, it is with BBMP. BDA is in charge of Bellandur and Virthoor lake.”
Not only Pattandur lake, however several other lakes like, Bellandur, Virthoor and kengeri lakes are facing the same fate. An expert from the city shares a solution to the problem.
Ram Prasad, co-founder of Friends of Lake, said, “The concept of dead lake and live lake smells of encroachment of the body, lake rejuvenation is mostly to do with water, however in Detail project report more importance is given to nearby land utilisation. Water treatment, desilting process should be included in the rejuvenation process of each lake.”
Recently on 7th November 2019, the MLA of Mahadevpura Sri Arvind Limbavali was supposed to inspect the status of the lake; however resident group says he cancelled the inspection. The future of the lake still remains in question.
