Bengaluru: Over 2.5 lakh residences, flats, commercial complexes and perhaps, even government offices will come under the scanner for ‘encroaching’ buffer zones around lakes and storm water drains (SWDs) in the city.
“Up to 1.14 lakh properties have encroached buffer zones around lakes while a further 1.34 lakh households have come up within the buffer zone of rajakaluves (SWDs),” said K.B. Koliwad, Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Tank Bed Encroachments, on Wednesday. The committee comprises elected representatives from both houses.
“BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) has given us these figures after they hired an independent agency to ascertain the extent of buffer zone violations. A combination of satellite images and revenue maps were used to tabulate encroachments. The method is ‘95 per cent accurate’ and it would take a platoon of surveyors to ensure total accuracy – something the committee did not have time for,” he said.
The 10-member committee is looking at properties that have encroached on the 30m buffer zone – that is, the ‘no-development zone’ – around lakes, and between 15m and 50m from the centre of drains, as specified under the Bangalore Development Authority’s Revised Master Plan 2015, which was enforced in 2007.
“We are going by the 2007 Act and not the recent National Green Tribunal order (which increases the buffer zone to 75m). There has not been any notification with regard to the new buffer zone,” said Mr. Koliwad.
Not just lakes, even ponds and SWDs encroached
The city’s rapid urbanisation has resulted in more than more than 10,472 acres of tank bed encroached in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts. Additionally, over the years, 1,256.3 acres of ponds and dykes (called katte and kunte in Kannada) as well as 501.25 acres of SWDs have been encroached, said the Joint Committee for Tank Bed Encroachments.
Traditionally, katte and kuntes are artificially created receptacles of stored water. The committee estimates that there are 3,271 such ponds in and around Bengaluru spanning over 8,119 acres. Bengaluru Urban district alone has 6,908 acres of pond land, of which more than 11 per cent (or, 823 acres) has been encroached.
Not surprisingly, government agencies have been found to have encroached ponds in over 574 instances covering 276.8 acres.
Report by December
On Thursday, the Joint Committee on Tank Bed Encroachments turns two. Yet, even an interim report on the action to be taken against lake encroachments seems to be far away.
While numerous deadlines have been missed over the past year, committee chairperson K.B. Koliwad said the interim report will be submitted by December. “Data collection is over and a draft committee has been formed. We have over 8,000 pages of information. Booklets for each lake, with encroachments, encroachers’ information and photographs of properties will be made. This will be an encyclopedia of lakes. The committee is yet to discuss recommendations,” said Mr. Koliwad. A report on the encroachments of other water bodies will take ‘at least three months’ more.
On a personal note, the chairperson, who is also Speaker of the Assembly, said criminal cases should be filed against encroachers and their properties should be seized.
The panel
October 27, 2014: Committee formed to check encroachments in lakes, tanks, ponds, dykes and SWDs
To recommend action to be taken against encroachers
Encroachments of water bodies
Lakes
Number of lakes verified: 1,545
Encroached lakes: 1,379
Total encroachment: 10,785.85 acres (8.7 per cent of total lake area)
Encroachment by government agencies: 3,287.44 acre
Number of private encroachers: 11,764
Estimated value of encroachment: Rs. 1.5 lakh crore
Ponds and dykes (katte, kunte)
Total ponds and dykes: 3,271
Encroached area: 1,256.3 acre (15.47 per cent of total area)
Government encroachment: 276.8 acre
Number of private encroachers: 2,011
Estimated value of encroachment: Rs. 16,500 crore
Storm Water Drains (rajakaluves)
Encroached area: 501.25 acre over 1,090.66 km
Number of encroachers: 2,083
Maximum encroachment in Bengaluru East
Estimated value of encroachment: Rs. 11,000 crore
Source: Joint Committee on Tank Bed Encroachments
