The ₹3-crore ‘development work’ being carried out at Kukkarahalli lake in the heart of the city has green activists concerned, with many of them taking to social media to lodge their protest.
The plan is to remove silt and weeds around the periphery of the lake at a cost of ₹65 lakh, provide and fix an e-water harmonizer system including four HP jet pumping units, install a floating drum duct, and construct a boating jetty, among others. The works were officially launched on Tuesday.
U.N. Ravikumar, an environmentalist with more than three decades experience in studying the waterbodies in and around Mysuru, warned that the project could prove to be the proverbial nail in the coffin for the lake. “This is not the time for desilting the lake as the waterbody has no source of water and is choking. The water spread is down to 4 sq.km and the lake’s water holding capacity will further come down and reduce it to a seasonal lake,” he told The Hindu .
The claim that an e-water harmonizer system with jets would help oxygenate the waterbody is an exaggeration, he said, adding that the need of the hour is to ensure that the Kukkarahalli feeder channels are cleared and water flow into the lake is augmented. Besides, the Lake Technical Advisory Committee has not been consulted and the last time it met was in 2013, he added.
Eco-educationist Tanuja, who is also an amateur ornithologist, said the lake was on the verge of eutrophication but has degraded since. A major hotspot for birds, it once figured in the Important Bird Area Network list of Birdlife International, United Kingdom.
“But from a peak of nearly 216 bird species enumerated by the Mysore Amateur Naturalists in the early 1990s through 2000, the bird numbers have declined over the years. At present, one can only list around 175 species,” Ms. Tanuja said.
The activists are of the opinion that the lake is naturally beautiful and does not need any human-centric development; all it needs is protection. But instead, the authorities are spending crores of rupees on cosmetic improvements, which have been done many times in the past to no good, they said. “This is the third or fourth such intervention but the lake continues to choke because of misplaced priorities,” Ms. Tanuja said.
A section of green activists has launched a page called ‘Kukkarahalli Ullisi’ (Save Kukkarahalli) on Facebook to register their protest against the development plan.
