BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said 19 lakes encroached by government agencies, including Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), are in disuse. This means, these waterbodies are beyond rejuvenation and cannot be reclaimed.
BBMP officials said these lakes were encroached upon even before the forest department handed them over to the the civic body in 2010, and they cannot be revived.
Documents accessed by the TOI show that BBMP and Bangalore Development Authority are major encroachers of lakes, besides some private parties. Even educational institutions have built infrastructure on the waterbodies.
Shockingly, on Saneguruvanahalli Lake, a KSPCB employees' layout and park have come up on 15.2 acres of land. The layout also houses a laboratory of the board and is located at Basaveshwaranagar.
KV Sangunni, a lake activist, said this is strange and needs to be probed to find out who committed the mistake. The BBMP has to put out details of these lakes in public domain for the people to know who have encroached them and which are the ones declared 'disused'.
The documents reveal that BDA has encroached Lingarajapuram Lake (16.1 acres), Geddalahalli Lake (21.2 acres) and Tavarekere Lake (10.2 acres) and two small tanks at Arehalli. The forest department has built its office on Konena Agrahara Lake in Murugesh Palya on 4.2 acres, while on 5 guntas, a government hospital has come up.
At the same lake, Sir M Visvesvarayya college has built a compound on 3.1 acres and on 10.3 acres shacks have come up, popularly known as the Sriramnagar slum. A private apartment is built on 1.2 acres. The total area of the lake is 20.1 acres.
The Palike built an office on Shivanahalli Lake (Agrahara Dasarahalli) in Rajajinagar. It has built parks, roads, drains and crematorium on a few other lakes. The total area of lakes encroached by these agencies is 251 acres.
Ramprasad V, a lake activist, said that officials in BDA and BBMP responsible for this mess need to be punished.
Ravi KV, executive engineer (lakes), BBMP, said even before the waterbodies were handed over to them in 2010, the encroachments had taken place and they cannot be removed now. Hence, these lakes are classified as 'disused'.
Full report: toi.in