Bellandur Lake - Huge (Wet) Land filling in progress!
Road Side Land Fill example -1
Road Side Land Fill example -2
Road Side Land Fill example -3
The worker - sheds:-
Notice the Temporary Tin sheds of the workers colony in the back ground.
These are the pictures taken from the new road going through Bellandure lake wet Land connecting Yemalure village to Intel Building on the ring road.
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PIL?
Hi friends,
PSA has brought out this shocking incident most graphically through photos.
Is PIL the way to stop this vanadalism? I am game to be a party if any Prajagalu would like to initiate such a course.
What about making a hue and cry in newspapers / Channel TV9 etc?
RKC
Not just here, also the duct connecting Varthur lake
I had mailed these pics (took from plan, when old airport was around, degenration of this area used to be so visible as you landed or took off) to LDA about an year ago.
There is suspicious filling work on just around the duct that connects Belandur lake and Varthur lake. They have thankfuly left space for the duct - just enough, but I wont be surprised if the drain is seriously choked by now.
PIL?
Personally, I think a PIL is one way we should consider, but have no idea on the process or effectiveness.Surprisingly, there is no stink in the press or anywhere. We are like the famous poet, cutting the very branch we are sitting on. How does one take this forward? I am hoping that the couple of lake related veents next week will give a better idea of a path forward.
BWSSB engagement - lets try again
We had tried in the past to kickstart regular engagement with BWSSB - like some members are doing with BMTC.
Being in Whitefield - its a bit tight for me to be the engagement anchor with BWSSB (short notice or weekday evening meetints will be tough to attend). Sanjay or Zenrainman - if one of you can lead a bit and organized that very first meeting, more members could join and keep the connection active.
I can kickstart this via a set of RTIs, either to BWSSB asking about sewage/water mixing issues, or to BBMP about Varthur or Belandur lake projects. But that will make BBMP/BWSSB think of us in negative light right from start.
PS anantharam has passed me BWSB contacts that he made. I am going to ask for an appointment - have sent some emails already.
Hopefuly - we can manage a meeting in Oct 1st week or later, post the Dussehra leaves etc.
Another state agency to contact
ENVIS Centre - STATE OF ENVIRONMENT RELATED ISSUES
Department of Forest, Ecology & Environment (E & E), Govt. of Karnataka
No. 49, 2nd Floor, Parisara bhavan,Church street, Bangalore - 560 001
Phone: 080-2559 1515
Email 1: kar-envis@envis.nic.in
Email 2: enviskar@dataone.in
Their website is pretty interesting and informative. parisaramahiti.kar.nic.in/lakes.html
bellandhur lake
ssheragu
I fully agree with sanjayv
I feel that PIL is the only way of stopping this outright destruction of lake. A PIL will definitely stall the destruction (if not stopping it) , at least for some time, during when we can take alternative actions.
many thanks
Srinath Heragu
19Sep09-bellandur visit
PSA sir and I met up and he took me on a guided tour of the Bellandur tank area. I have pictures from four major areas from picture below, numbered as 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Please click on the embedded pictures to see a larger scale view.
Location 1 is close to Belur Nagasandra right next to the Sewage treatment plant. The picture is taken from a road coming up on the side of one of the inlet streams. Location 2 is all along the side of the road which is filled with construction debris. Location 3 is the bridge at Yamlur which is the perfect spot to see the foamy frothy water. Location 4 is by the side of the road to Bellandur village. THe low lying land is being filled in with soil. Other areas where soil is being used to fill in and choke the channel going to the STP and then Varthur lake is clearly seen.
Here are two pictures taken from top of the mound of soil forming the "road" at location marked 1. In the second picture, dumped construction debris used to augment the mound is clearly seen. Huge amount of construction debris has been further dumped all along the sides of this road as well as on the side of wind tunnel road that hugs the HAL airport (marked as 2 in the map)
At the location marked 3 at Yamlur, there is a bridge that cuts across the stream. As the fater flows below the bridge (there is a slope here and hence the flow is fairly fast like river rapids), the presence of effluents in the water presumably causes a lot of foam. I could pass the picture off as a river with snow in the winter.
Here, the road forks, the left fork goes to Kadubeesanahalli (Nokia, JP Morgan etc.), while the right fork is a road that eventually goes to Bellandur village. The low lying area of the section of road going to kadubeesanahalli has been filled up with soil at several locations to build what would be apartment complexes or offices. This filling process has efficiently choked the pathway which would conduct water to the Kadubeesanahalli sewage treatment plant and further to Varthur lake.
Along the side of the road leading to Bellandur, marked as location 4, one can see fresh soil being dumped to make road level sites, thus eating into the nice valley.floodplain of the lake. The bund on which the road is built also appears to cut off/demarcate the lake. It is not clear how this used to look in the past.
Bellandur PIL
Actually, turns out that the Bellandur lake pollution and encroachment is currently in the courts. There have been several actual and threatened litigation which motivated the authorities to do whatever was done so far in term of sewage treatment plants. The current litigation sub-judice in the Lok Adalat was a result of the erstwhile Bellandur panchayat realizing its power under the Panchayati Raj act, filed a case on a host of agencies including the BWSSB to clean up the lake.
Actually, it turns out that the recent order on various hospitals by the KSPCB (Pollution control board) to either setup up effluent treatment plants or close operation was a result of this ongoing litigation. Apparently, the judge threatened to throw the KSPCB chairman in jail if they did not act on the situation faster. The board promptly issued a notice to the hospitals to open the plants immediately or shut down!
I will be adding some information to the gyan section covering various aspects of the problem (including the litigation) in a few days.
Thanks, and PIL
Thanks for the pictures Sanjay and PSA sir.
I am game if someone is going to join in, and willing to share the costs, if another PIL would help. We could pick another lake if Bellandur is crowded with litigations.
Best would be to find out the people behind the current PIL, and support them by supplying material from IISc research, or pictures etc.
lake on fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyC13rhOm10