BENGALURU : A century-old lake which has dried up in the last few years, has now been encroached by illegal hutments, garbage debris and sand lorries in Jaraganahalli. While illegal activities have covered up the existence of a lake there, activists and residents say there is a clear violation of a 1999 High Court order.
The High Court had directed the state government not to convert Jaraganahalli Tank into layouts. The court papers observed by City Express reveal that not only the order of allowing water to be collected in the tank was violated, but also there was nothing that was done to prevent garbage dumping and sand lorries to be parked on the tank bed. A member of Save Yelachenahalli Lake campaign, Aleem said not just hutments, even bungalows have come up on the erstwhile lake. “If we go by the map, it clearly shows the extent of the lake. The Storm Water Drain (SWD) was also encroached,” he said.
Another resident who did not wish to be named said the garbage dumping was stopped after a fence was put up by the residents to prevent dumping. “More than `1 lakh was spent on putting up that fence. The lake needs to be revived and protected from such illegal encroachers,” the resident said.
“According to the pahani (land records), it is a water tank and not a lake which was given to a bank association along with the nearby land. Some portion of the land belongs to a government school. Now that it is a developed area, it has become difficult to assess the dimensions of the lake. A survey is needed. But the BBMP is in charge of the water tank,” said a source.
Another document in 2008 shows a Tahsildar’s report stating that the land has indeed been encroached, though the report does not claim that it is illegal. “The village map and the BDA survey map also prove that there is a lake,” said Aleem. The documents reveal that over four acres of barren land on the lake bed has been encroached, though transfer of such land is illegal. BBMP lakes engineer-in-chief B V Satish and Tahsildar Manjappa were unavailable for comment.