My apartment is on lakeside, the
largest lake of Bangalore, I mentioned to a friend and the response was “Awwww,
Envy you!!! Must be a picturesque sight!!!”. I asked the same question to myself,
is it a reality? And the answer was BIG NO. Sight could have been picturesque
if there was no froth, no fumes and no weeds. It could have been pleasure to walk/drive
along lake shore but the fact is, the froth enters school buses and fills
complete road. The obvious question is why do all these exist in first place?
Whom should I ask? Who is responsible? As an individual, I land up making
Government responsible and further assuming Government will not be enough
responsive. The only answer to this entire list of questions is lack of
awareness and taking ownership.Team who has interacted with Government official understands that, Government officials are keen on lake work but being part of huge Governing System, they have their own challenges but above all there is need of awareness about: What’s being done on Lake Front? What is expected from people and Government? Set and nurture the idea of working hand in hand with Government towards the common goal of “Lake Rejuvenation”: An impromptu idea of a Platform where all stake holders join and share ideas, concerns, updates and way forward. Soon the idea started taking shape…. The first ever “Kere Habba (Lake Fest)”, one of its kind event that will bring all Government Stake holders, Citizens and Social groups on the common platform to collaborate and connect, with the aim of solving the teething issue, of cleaning of lake.
Bellandur Kere Habba…. Sounded
like a distant dream; when, all we hear about our beloved bed ridden lake is
only froth, fumes, smell and fires. And we dared to DREAM the impossible.
Finally, on August 5, we were
on ground zero next to the lake, celebrating the lake which was first loved,
then abused and now struggling to be alive. Should we have waited to see
the lake completely rejuvenated or was it right to celebrate small steps
[pebble stone if not milestone in this long journey]? Not sure, but all of us, who put together
hard work over three weeks, were very happy to see our dream come true with the
initiative undertaken towards lake rejuvenation celebration and associated
events supporting the cause.
The much talked about Bellandur
lake is struggling to find the saviour in the tussle among various government
departments BDA who is owner, BBMP who is supposed to safeguard it from
dumping, BWSSB who is supposed to protect it from 40% of city sewage entering,
KSPCB who is supposed to monitor its life, KLCDA who is custodian and then we,
the citizens living around it, watching it getting torturous every single day,
felt its pain and the need to save it.
Mr. Ram Parasad, from Friends
of Lakes, mentioned during panel discussion that lakes are nature’s gift and
belong to commons. Unless there is realization about this close coupling of
water bodies and human life, no measures undertaken will bear any fruit. We
need to understand water in our tap is coming from a source that needs to be
kept alive and clean.
Dr. Vasanthi Amar, JC,
Mahadevapura zone BBMP mentioned that till the time people used to go to water
bodies to fetch water, they had a close-knit connection. Now water comes to
homes in tap and we have forgotten and neglected the sources of water.
2017 has heralded “Save
Bellandur” lake efforts to new heights after the instances of two fires and
excessive foam in the lake and subsequent NGT order rapping civic authorities
to take necessary steps to clean and rejuvenate the lake. We, the members of Bellandur
lake citizen committee, are engaged regularly to monitor the progress of work
that was promised and pushed by NGT order and recommended by Lake expert
committee. And
then we met BDA officials, who told us about all the proposals and tenders that
have been going around rejuvenating lake. We all wanted to see those tall
claims on ground. Surprisingly, officials were equally keen to showcase work
done so far, to citizens to give assurance of what’s being done. Things started
falling in place and August 5th
became the historical day to have first ever Bellandur lake Kere Habba.
Habba
in Making
Three weeks’ notice and
Bellandur Lake group took it on themselves to make it happen with whatever time
and resources we had in hand. We got assurance from BDA, KLCDA and BBMP to
provide full support.
The lake group members started
discussing on dedicated WhatsApp group and started formalizing the event. Some
in disbelieve and some in excitement… There is a saying that when you really
dream with all passion, whole universe comes together and conspires to make it
happen. Rotary club came on board for the planned event, Radio Mirchi brought
in additional the excitement and fervour to motivate, and we started dreaming
bigger and bigger.
Communities around lakes came
forward to pitch in with micro contributions. Businesses around lake came
forward and Bellandur Kere Habba started getting into shape with daily
discussions, ground inspection, sponsorships and programs. Decathlon came forward
to conduct cycling event, Art matters for collaborative art, Clay Ganesha for
children art activity. EchoAcademy
brought in Nirvana, and Zumba on the lake side, Yoga with Ganesh Guruji. Hawk
Sports Arena came on board to provide all support from sports Arena. BDA started levelling the
ground. BBMP pitched in to ensure ground is cleared for the designated day.
KSPCB and BDA provided all required help along with permissions in organizing
the event.
All activities to connect with
lake like Lake detective, lake photo walk with different moods (by Geek Ideas)
and conditions of lake, run on lake road, lake issues explained by kids, all
these events left the crowd mesmerized and nostalgic about the lake and
surrounding natural ecosystem. Yes, lake still has weeds, there is still foam
and there is still smell but after realizing the value and potential of the
place, We, the citizens are becoming more adamant to push the envelope even
more to get things in order and rejuvenate the lake to breathe the life back. The lake which has become a
sore spot at present, will soon be an asset to community as we stand up
together and connect and collaborate to clean it up, just the way we saw the
collaboration for Kere Habba.
Setback
and Moving on
Though all officials BBMP
Commissioner, BDA commissioner, KSPCB chairman, KLDCA CEO, BBMP JC SWM, blocked
their calendar to connect with citizens for panel discussions, last minute CM
city tour looked like overshadowing the zeal of Bellandur Lake Group. But what
a hopelessly optimist crowd we are. We outshined it with wonderful panel
discussion with experts and the panellists included Dr. Yellapa Reddy (former
Secretary, Dept. of Ecology & Environment,), Dr. Vijay Kumar (MD Scalene
& BBMP Expert Member), Sridhar Pabisetty (Namma Bengaluru Foundation) Ram
Prasad (Friends of Lakes), Md Naimatulla Khan (BDA), N Lakshman (KSPCB), JC
Mahadevapura (BBMP) and Dr. Vasanthi Amar (BBMP) to discuss the status of the
Lake and the rejuvenation measures being undertaken.
Session also made citizens
understand it's not only responsibility of government but we (CITIZENS) are
equally responsible to safe guard and rejuvenate our own lake. Some of the
specialists indicated that the lake could be completely revived in a span of
three years with cooperation of all stakeholders.
All guests planted sapling
along the fencing of buffer zone to mark the rejuvenation celebration.
The day, started with wonderful
run along the lake, cycling by the lake, yoga, Zumba, hustle bustle of food and
other flea market shops selling eco-friendly items, witnessed kids, adults all
engaged equally with food, fun and lot of awareness about lake. Kid’s vision of
lake in form of art was breath-taking.
Zero
Waste Affair
And all along the celebrations
and proceedings, we kept eagle eye to make it zero waste event with no plastic
water bottles, no paper cups, and no disposables at all. Proper colour coded
labelled as per 2bin1bag guidelines [www.2bin1bag.in]
bins were placed at the venue. Food vendors served in steel, areca and leaf
plates, water dispensers were placed all around to refill water bottles. All invites
reminded all to bring napkins, water bottle, and cloth bag. Stall organisers
were given detailed zero waste guidelines in advance. Even panellist on the
stage were served water in steel tumblers and clay bottles. After long time,
seeing stage without disposable water bottles really made us think that it's doable
to have any event without generating waste. Swachcha was engaged to manage
waste to ensure that food waste is composted along with areca and leaf
disposables. Recycled waste is rightly going to recycling. Even sign
boards were reused from #KillBills drive. No flower bookeys, no garlands for
guest “Only our appreciation, love and respect”. All guest speakers left their
mark behind by planting a sapling. We have kept all signs printed to be
used at next Kere Habba at Soul Kere which is on August 19th as Vigyana Habba. Art work was
put along the lake fence to appeal to all those who missed the Habba to pay
attention to the lake.
What
citizen Want Next
We are looking to convert the
ground zero to walking trail and Nature Park so all of us can closely watch our
beloved Kere and monitor its health on daily basis. Sridhar Pabisetty, CEO Namma
Bengaluru said that citizens need to watch and guard their surroundings. If
citizens are active and vigilant and participate wholeheartedly, then only we
have chance to survive and sustain ourselves.
We are ready to participate and
lead the way and demand officials and government to facilitate the cleaning of
lake. We
will work closely with all concerned departments to push for implementation of
expert committee recommendations. While speeding up STP is main priority and
creates dependency on other work like desilting and desludging, fencing the
lake completely to stop dumping garbage, sewage, C&D is equally important.
We the citizen committee look for transparency from government agency on
rejuvenation plan and progress. Despite NGT notice, only partial de-weeding,
encroachment removal and fencing is done. We need to ensure that work speed up
so we don’t lose the lake. Foaming has to stop, fires need to stop. Bellandur
lake should become attraction of the town by showcasing transformation from the
Biggest lake to most Beautiful lake.
Let’s all take a pledge together: We will all be vigilant, will not allow anyone to abuse our lakes and nature and help in any way to make the lakes and city look beautiful. We will dare to dream BIG.
Kudos to our volunteers and rock
star organizers!!!
This article was first published in
Citizen Matters (www.citizenmatters.in)
and is republished here with permission.
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