Scores of environmental activists and citizens participated in the Save Kukkarahalli Lake protest held near the Deputy Commissioner’s office here to stop the ongoing “contractor-driven development works” on Tuesday.
The crux of the issue revolves around the ₹3 crore works initiated by the district administration and the University of Mysore ostensibly to remove silt besides other works to “embellish” the lake precincts.
But environmentalists have objected to the misplaced priorities and warned of the lake losing its water retention capacity and turning into a seasonal lake in the absence of measures to augment water inflow.
The opponents of the works have claimed that their numbers are gradually depleting despite multiple interventions costing crores of rupees, all of which were human-centric development without a thought to adopt conservation measures to protect the lake.
Mr. U.N.Ravikumar, who has studied the water bodies in and around Mysuru for more than 3 decades, said tourism promotion should be the least of the priorities and focus should be on retaining the lake as a biodiversity hotspot.
Greater transparency
In a memorandum submitted to the DC to stall the civil works, environmentalists have demanded greater transparency in the lake administration, called for immediate cessation of all civil works, identification and clearance of channels to help augment water inflow into the lake among others.
In a bid to augment water supply, the citizens have called for establishing a grey water harvesting system to treat and release sewage besides creating rain water harvesting system among others.
The citizens group have also collected over 3500 signatures besides drumming up support through their online campaign to save the lake. The activists have not ruled out approaching the court to stall the works in case the authorities ignore their demands.
