Four months ago, Muniraju, a farmer living beside the banks of the severely polluted Maragondanahalli lake, decided to supplement his income by buying more cows.
He purchased a cow for ₹70,000 from Kolar. But on arriving by the lake, the cow refused to eat the grass or drink the water. Last month, fearing it would die of starvation, he sold it for ₹10,000. “The grass here has a peculiar smell,” says Muniraju.
Maragondanahalli lake, spread over 150 acres in east Bengaluru, froths copiously in its main channel. Villagers say over 80 acres of paddy fields have been abandoned over the years, and the wild grass here is the only fodder for villages nearby. “There are at least 200 cows and hundreds of goats grazing here during dry seasons, some even brought from 10 km away,” says Sampegamma. Two decades ago, her cows yielded on an average 10 litres of milk each day. Now, she gets around seven litres. “The water makes them sick,” she says.
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B.D. Nagappa, vice-president, Bangalore Urban, Rural & Ramanagaram District Co-Operative Milk Producers’ Societies Union Ltd., said fodder has been a problem for areas such as Mandur and Jyothipura and lakes such as these provide an opportunity for free fodder.
He, however, said that the standard of milk is highly regulated in BAMUL, and there was little chance that contaminants end up in the milk sold in the city.