Save Pattandur Agrahara Lake: Will enroachments and contamination stop?

BBMP officials woke up to find several lakes dying in the city after a social media campaign alerted them about one such lake - the Pattandur Agrahara lake - but will encroachments and contamination stop?

In a successful social media campaign that has caught the attention of the elusive officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), residents of the Whitefield area have stood up for the Pattandur Agrahara lake, that has been in news ever since construction of a road began in its buffer zone in 2017.

Mahadevapura Zonal Commissioner has ordered officials to look into the illegal construction in the buffer zone of the Pattandur Agrahara Lake in Bengaluru's Whitefield. (HT PHOTO/ Image for Representation)

The Zonal Commissioner from Mahadevapura BBMP, Trilok Chandra, has reportedly written a letter to the joint commissioner and chief engineer of the Mahadevapura zone on March 25 in the matter.

Attaching a copy of the complaint filed by Sandeep Anirudhan, the president of Whitefield's Residential Welfare Association (RWA) about the illegal construction, Chandra has asked both the joint commissioner and the chief engineer to inspect the spot and take action immediately.

The online campaign, called the ‘Save Pattandur Agrahara Lake’, was launched by the Residential Welfare Association, opposing the construction of a road in the buffer zone of the Pattandur Agrahara Lake. According to a High Court order it should be ensured that there is no construction within 30 metres of the boundaries of lakes.

In the letter, Zonal Commissioner Trilok Chandra has said that no report has been sent till date to his office. And that titles such as ‘The evidence is overwhelming – The Road is Illegal’, ‘All that’s required is action’, ‘Who will bell the cat?, The BBMP Chief Commissioner? Or the Mahadevapura Zonal Commissioner? Or the Police Commissioner?’ are viral on social media. "It is causing embarrassment and there are chances of getting chided by the court,” he wrote, according to News Trail.

The News Trail quoted Sandeep Anirudhan as saying that all the evidence required is in the public domain, and all officials need to do is act, instead letters and notices have been bouncing off of various desks in the department while the BBMP Road Infrastructure Division continues to violate.

Anirudhan has also told The New Indian Express on Tuesday that the zonal commissioner being ordered to send a report on the issue has already sent two letters to stop the road construction, but in vain.

The question remains on if officials will clear encroachments on Bengaluru's lakes, which face extinction as contamination and climate change are wiping out a majority of the ever-growing city's water bodies. Various lakes in the city are subject to similar treatment, with the Thalaghattapura lake partially occupied by a private school and contaminated by hazardous waste, and the Kengeri lake, which has all but died due to the mixture of oil and detergents forming a thick sludge over its surface.