How is the Garden City maintaining its parks and gardens?

At a time when access to water has become Bengaluru’s biggest issue, how are the authorities looking after the parks and gardens of the Garden City, keeping these spaces green.

The two premium lung spaces in the city — Lalbagh and Cubbon Park — are maintained by the Horticulture Department. The two green spaces get 15 lakh litres of treated water every day for the maintenance of trees and plants. The borewells within the gardens provide water for the potted plants.

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“The water levels have gone down in the borewells. There are some dry patches here and there in Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. Although we are not greatly affected, maintenance during the summer season is difficult,” said M. Jagadeesh, Joint Director (Parks and gardens), Horticulture Department.

Stressing that there is no alternative for rainwater, he said, “Irrespective of how many times we water the plants, because of the heat, the wetness in the soil immediately dries up. This has caused some withering. This concern can only be addressed by rains.”

1,270 BBMP Parks

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) maintains a total of 1,270 parks which are spread across eight zones in the City. Every locality in Bengaluru has at least one BBMP park. Most of these parks have their own borewells. Due to recent weather conditions, some of these borewells have run dry.

“So far, we have not had big problems when it comes to park maintenance. In the parks where the borewells are dry, we are planning to get tankers and use Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) water or biologically treated wastewater. Out of all the parks we maintain, there are water problems in around 100 – 200 of them as of now,” said Chandrashekar, Deputy Director (Horticulture), BBMP.

Why is Bengaluru staring at a severe water shortage?

For the maintenance of one park, BBMP would require about two water tankers for three days.

While parks and gardens have their own borewells, golf courses in the City often rely on external sources, mostly treated water for maintenance. These courses sprawled across acres need lakhs of litres of water everyday. The two major golf clubs – Bangalore Golf Club and Karnataka Golf Association – are grappling with water shortage.

Bangalore Golf Club needs around seven lakh litres of water every day whereas it is getting only two and a half to three lakh litres as of now.

“Water is a major requirement for golf courses to maintain the fairways and greens.We mostly use treated water, but sometimes buy tankers too. However now, because of the demand and increased prices we are not able to procure tankers. For now, we are not able to do much for our fairways, but we are taking care of greens. Every summer, we face water shortage but this time, it is acute,” said D.N. Vasanth Kumar, captain, Bangalore Golf Club.

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A regular golfer at Karnataka Golf Association said that the course received treated water from K.C. Valley for maintenance. He added that there is a definite shortage of water now and the water has gone down even in small ponds on the course.

The fate of IPL

The city is also scheduled to host three IPL matches later this month and in early April — on March 25, 29 and April 2. But, for the upkeep of the turf, water from the sewage Treatment Plant (STP) unit within the premises of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium is used.

However, there is precedent for the shifting of matches, for in 2016, the Bombay High Court had ordered that close to a dozen games — including the final — be moved out of Maharashtra owing to severe drought.