Many of the lakes in the city have “disappeared” along with their water-spreads due to rapid and unbridled urbanisation here, a study said.
The study, published by city-based Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), paints a grim scenario with further worsening of the water-bodies if the State government fails to get its act together.
Interestingly, the data available with the Irrigation Department and the Directorate of Economics and Statistics neither show any decline in the number of lakes nor irrigation potential created, the ISEC release said on Thursday.
“Besides this, the data on several other aspects is missing. Even the existing information on various aspects shows wide variations across sources. For instance, the information on water-spread area of 125 lakes varies across sources,” Dr P. Thippaiah, the author of the report, said.
The survey found that beds and drainages of several tanks were utilised for residential layouts, construction of roads, public offices and shopping complexes. All these were done without keeping in mind about the problems during the monsoon, it added.
The research, which tracked the present characteristics of lakes, encroachment issues, rejuvenation of lakes and tank maintenance measures, underlined the need of government’s participation while planning new projects and residential layouts.
“If possible, the tanks/lakes and their irrigated area (which is more fertile) should be kept out of acquisition, and dry land around them may be used for residential purposes,” Dr. Thippaiah said in the study titled Vanishing Lakes: A Study of Bangalore City .
The government should also initiate appropriate action against individuals and companies who encroach on the tanks in collusion with officials by fabricating documents of encroached lands, the study said.
Lake Development Authority (LDA), supposed to coordinate with several civic agencies and maintain a good data base about the tanks, has failed to prevent encroachments, largely due to lack of manpower and inadequate finances, it claimed.
The management of all lakes, currently under LDA, should be transferred to Bangalore Development Authority and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, as they have sufficient resources and manpower to implement restoration programmes, it added.
There were also cases wherein private lease holders were found to overuse the lakes for commercial purposes and also encroach for expanding their activities.
