What conservationists are doing to save India’s lakes

The chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, Kempe Gowda, who founded Bengaluru in 1537, built the city on sound architectural and urban planning principles. The naturally undulating terrain of Bengaluru city lent itself easily to the development of lakes. Four lakes were constructed to store water for household purposes and a last one, Sampangi Lake was meant for irrigation. A canal system was constructed such that in the rainy season, extra water from a lake, which was overflowing could feed into another lake through these interlinked canals and finally flow outside the city. Today though, the case is different. 

According to the Karnataka government’s website, since 1960, 35 per cent of Bengaluru’s water bodies have been destroyed. There have been instances in the past couple of years of lakes combusting and a huge thick fire swirling up because of a toxic mix of industrial effluents, solid waste and sewage.  

Bengaluru’s lost lakes have been much lamented. Rampant urban growth has resulted in the destruction of lakes in various Indian cities. To accommodate growing populations, lakes have been filled up and buildings have been constructed over the landfill. Another aspect of destruction has been the dumping of sewage and plastic waste in the lakes, resulting in a thick layer, which encourages the growth of water hyacinth and production of harmful methane gas. 

The death of lakes concerns us all, because not only are they reservoirs of surplus water during heavy rains, but are also aquatic ecosystems and great places for recreation. Indian cities have typically no natural places where people can simply hang out. In cities of the world, which have maintained their lakes, like Lake Lemmen in Geneva for example, lakefronts are where people of all classes and age groups in the city can spend a relaxing time. In India, we see this in the few hill stations in the north that still have retained their lakes, like Bhimtal and Nainital. Lakes don’t have the religious angle that rivers do, nor the tidal uncertainties of the sea. For both these reasons, lakes are calmer environments. That should give us enough reason to participate in saving our lakes like some community-minded and ecologically-conscious folk are doing. 

Noida and Greater Noida in the NCR region are one of the fastest-growing urban areas of the country. If one was to pass by a road and return there a fortnight later, there is a good chance that the landscape would have changed because of a new construction. Such rapid growth is never without an ecological impact. One of them has been that many lakes, which existed earlier have now disappeared. Only about half of the 700-odd lakes that existed in the district now survive, with Noida having no water bodies at all. 

A Green NGO called SAFE has been working with local authorities to revive at least some of the lakes. As expected, it has not been easy. As real estate prices skyrocketed, encroachers filled the lakes and took over the land, while authorities looked the other way. Vikrant Tongad, the founder of SAFE, explains how houses at the edge of the lake do their best to ensure that status quo is maintained. Through negotiations and bringing in the local MLA and District Magistrate into the picture, the lake warriors manage to gain access to the water body. 

The most important thing is community support. Ramveer Tanwar, a young man from the district, tells me how villagers are brought together to have conversations about the need to save water in an initiative called jal chaupal. Once they see the point  of reviving a lake or pond in the village, they offer shram daan, (volunteering effort). Along with another youth,  Tanwar has been at the forefront of saving about a dozen lakes in the region. If the lake is deep and filled with garbage, excavators are employed to remove plastic bottles and packets from the bottom. Specially-trained workers are brought in from other parts of the state to pull out the water hyacinth. Tractors are brought in to transport the sludge recovered from the lake. Depending on the size of the lake, each operation costs between Rs 25,000 to even more than a lakh and takes about a fortnight. Urban folk settled in the area also volunteer on Sundays. 

Technology has also helped to put the waste recovered from polluted lakes to good use. The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad has found a way to make manure out of water hyacinth and a team of engineers in Bangalore have created a technique to turn the sludge excavated from lake beds to eco-friendly bricks. 

In 2017, a green crusader Balbir Singh Seechewal was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India for reviving a 160 kilometre rivulet called Kali Bein in Punjab. In one of his interviews, quoting from Sikh scriptures, he said that no other work could be more worthwhile than saving a water body because of all the creatures that depend on it. Saving a single lake helps to save hundreds of aquatic life and ensures water for future generations, who will inhabit that city. India needs many more crusaders to take up this worthwhile task.

The writer is the author of the book Urban Villager: Life in an Indian satellite town. Views expressed are personal.