BENGALURU: Along with the news of lakes in the city getting rejuvenated, various citizen groups are trying to make them cultural hotspots by hosting various activities.
While enjoying the serene beauty of nature, these initiatives also let the neighbourhood communities come together and indulge in some arts and educative programmes.
These activities are regular at Jakkur lake, whereas it is done on intervals at Puttenahalli and Kaikondrahalli lakes.
Spearheaded by the citizen group called Jalposhan - Nurturing the Jakkur Lake, the cultural activities at the lake premises is a collaborative effort of government authorities, institutes, resident welfare associations, fishermen and other stakeholders.
“Once treated as waste dumpyard, today, Jakkur lake has been recognised as a model that can be replicated for any urban lake by Jal Shakti Abhiyan. Every third Sunday, we conduct art programmes like classical dance, theatre and music in the Evening Raga programme. Along with that we have Jakkur Kere Utsav, which started on November 9 and will continue till December 8. This includes workshops, talks, rangoli competition, deepotsava and so on, focusing on nurturing the talent of community,” says Annapurna S Kamath, one of the trustees, Jalposhan.
Puttenahalli is another active lake community that focuses on community building and nature preservation through arts and culture. “We have been doing mime, theatre workshops, live music and dance workshops to bring the local community over to the lake. It is to make them aware of the preservation of lake. Many people live in social isolation, without communicating to each other or minding just their own business. So, we do these activities to bring them together. Seeing the response of the people, we set up a small podium for showcasing the events,” shares Usha Rajagopalan, chairperson, Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust. But again due to sewage problem, they have suspended the events for a while now. “Now, our focus is on fixing the pollution problem. It’s sad that we have to discontinue these cultural programmes,” she added.
The Kere Habba (Kannada for Lake Festival) at Kaikondrahalli lake is well known and a much looked forward to annual event. “The Kere Habba features an organic and eco-friendly santhe, live music performances, storytelling sessions, workshops, activities and last year we had a conference to discuss projects that would reimagine our lakes. It is a sunrise-to-sunset event that has something for everyone from children to grandparents. Our citizen’s trust partners with BBMP Lakes to take care of five lakes in the Sarjapur area and our activities are spread across these.
We recently had a bio-diversity walk at Kaikondrahalli, a lake cleanup and plantation at Sowl Kere,” Rashmi Hari, a volunteer, Mahadevpura Parisara Samrakshane Mattu Abhivrudhi Samiti, said. Similar to the case of Puttenahalli, Kaikondrahalli lake is also facing issues like encroachments and sewage flow. However, the community is preparing for making the upcoming Kere Habba on February 3, 2020 another experience.