How do you kill a lake? Simply fill it up with truckloads of earth. This is exactly what happened to Chikkalasandra lake years ago, claims Chikkathammaiah, who has been fighting a lone battle for almost a decade.
How do you kill a lake? Simply fill it up with truckloads of earth. This is exactly what happened to Chikkalasandra lake years ago, claims Chikkathammaiah, who has been fighting a lone battle for almost a decade.
On December 24, 2010, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) standing committee for horticulture chairman Raganna inspected the Puttenahalli, Uttarahalli and Dorai lakes near Uttarahalli and asked officials to clear the encroachments, but ‘deliberately’ skipped the inspection of the now-declared-dry Chikkalasandra lake. The lake has allegedly been encroached upon by the local leaders who have constructed huge buildings there.
The Chikkalasandra lake, in Padmanabhanagar, used to be spread over 12.26 acres once. Being the only water body in the area, it was used for irrigation, fishing and other purposes, but now, it is just another piece of land that houses slums and huge buildings. There is no trace of water in the lake which once provided drinking water to the residents.
Locals allege that Padmanabhanagar corporator L Srinivas and a few other politicians have constructed buildings on the lake bed.
Chikkathammaiah aka Devegowda, a resident of Chikkalasandra, is one person who has been fighting against the encroachers for the past decade and knocking on the doors of the court.
“It used to be a huge lake. There was a brick factory run by Ramachandrappa and Shourie, and CG Nagaraju and G Muniswamy had taken a lease for fishing in the lake. There used to be a burial ground near the lake. But everything has changed now. Some nine years ago, a few people brought truckloads of mud, filled in the lake and killed it. Thereafter, they raised huge buildings over and around the lake’s catchment area,” he said.
Disgusted over the development, Chikkathammaiah went to the court. “I gave all the details pertaining to the lake to the court. I only hope the court takes action against the influential people who killed the lake and retained the lake area,” he said and added that he was not afraid of anyone and would fight against the issue till death.
DNA has details of the lake report prepared by the BBMP which has also been provided to the high court. It mentions the Chikkalasandra lake as dry and the area as 9.38 acres. But Chikkathammaiah claims the lake was not dry but was covered by soil, which was followed by the slumming of the area. He says the actual area of the lake is 12.26 acres. In the report, the BBMP has mentioned that the lake has been encroached upon by 48 persons.
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