ARTICLES PUBLISHED

IN
DOWN TO EARTH

1. Kerala's protected, yet polluted lake

Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta
Issue Date: 2015-7-01
Though Kerala's Ashtamudi lake is a Ramsar site, government bodies and industries continue to pollute it
IN 2002, when Ashtamudi lake in Kerala was brought under the Ramsar convention, it was expected that
this would stop the lakes deterioration. Usually, when a water body gets notified under this international
treaty on wetland conservation, its preservation and protection is boosted. Ashtamudi, however, lost 27
square kilometres in the decade that followed. In 2002, the area of the lake was 61.4 sq km.
According to the Wetland (Conser-vation and Management) Rules, 2010, formulated by the Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the water bodies listed under the Ramsar Convention are not
to be polluted or encroached upon. In the case of Ashtamudi, various government bodies have been
polluting and encroaching upon the lake. In 2001, the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation built a
hotel right on the bank of the lake. It has also been discharging untreated sewage into the lake, says B
Vasantha Kumari, resident of Kollum district, where the lake is situated. She visits the lake frequently and
says it has turned black and stinks. Steps should have been taken to prevent this discharge once the lake
came under the Ramsar Conventionan intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for
national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their
resources.
In a similar case, the Kollam Corporation commissioned a biogas
plant on the bank of the lake in 2007 with the help of the State
Pollution Control Board. The plant operated for a short duration and
pumped raw sewage into the lake. But in 2008, the board directed the
corporation to shut it because the health of the lake had started to
deteriorate.

The lake has become a waste dumping site for the town, says L
Razeena Karim, researcher at the zoology department of Fatima
Mata National College, Kollam. She says that disposal of Kollams
municipal waste has affected the physical, chemical and biological
characteristics of the lake ecosystem. A study she did in 2011 found
that biological oxygen demand in the lake was 9 mg/l. This is almost
three times the standard set by the Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) for water fit for outdoor bathing. The dissolved oxygen was
as low as 1mg/lone-sixth of CPCB standards. Nutrients like nitrate
and phosphate were also found to be twice the standard levels. The
presence of total dissolved solids in wells close to the lake was 64 times the permissible limit of 500 mg/l.
As a result, the groundwater, which gets recharged by the lake, also gets contaminated, says Karim.
A lot of money is being spent on recharging the water table. This year, the district panchayat of Kollam
earmarked Rs 8 crore for recharging wells in the area. This would not have been required had the lake
been in proper health. Experts say that restoring the lake can solve the problem.

Tourist economy
A part of the Kerala backwaters, Ashtamudi is the second largest lake in the state. Ashtamudi wetland is
an estuary and the lake forms a major geomorphological feature of the Kollam town. It is a major tourist
attraction and houseboats are a big draw. But they are also a major source of pollution because they
release waste directly into the lake, says Prasanna Earnest, former mayor of Kollam. Apart from that, oil
spillage from motor boats is affecting fish population, says Karim. According to a 2007 study by the
University of Agriculture Science, Bengaluru, the lake has an annual economy of over Rs 1,900 crore,
with 87 per cent of it coming from fisheries. Around
3,000 fisherfolk depend on the lake for their catch.
Another source of pollution is the runoff from
agricultural fields in adjoining areas. Chemical fertilisers
and pesticides are causing eutrophication of the lake.
Small-scale industries like coconut husk retting also
contribute heavily to its organic pollution.
Lack of coordination
Experts say that jurisdictional issues are the biggest hurdle in the maintenance of Ashtamudi. The land
around the lake is under the states revenue department, the irrigation department is responsible for the
water while the catchment area is under the forest department. Nizarudheen, additional secretary of
Kollam Municipality, says since the town does not have enough treatment plants, untreated waste is
discharged into the lake. He says the municipality has advised the district collector to set up treatment
plants to improve the towns sewage management. V K Madhusudanan, convener of Kerala-based nonprofit Kerala Sastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP), which has been working on the conservation of the lake
since 2006, says there is an urgent need to take steps for managing the towns solid waste. According to
KSSP, the lake and its surrounding areas have already lost over 900 ha of mangrove forest and this has
destabilised the shore line.
Saving the lake
P Sivanandan, professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvanan-thapuram, says that
deterioration of the lake ecosystem can hit tourism. But CDS has a plan that can help, he says. The plan,
which has been developed in collaboration with the Centre for Earth Sciences, Thiruvananth-apuram,
suggests measures such as banning mining in areas close to the lake, protecting the shore by planting
trees, improving sanitation and addressing the problem of declining fish stock.
A few initiatives have also been taken at the district level. District collector A K Kawsigan recently
organised two meetings to get suggestions from different departments for saving the lake. The
Collectorate says it is compiling the suggestions.
But when will they be implemented is yet not clear.

Link: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/kerala-s-protected-yet-polluted-lake-50403

2. Dry cleaning Hussainsagar

Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta [1]
Issue Date:
2015-4-30
Telangana plans to first empty Hyderabad's great lake
and then refill it with rainwater. Experts say it is nothing
but a harebrained plan

Call it his farsighted idea to restore the health of a lake

or plain blunder, Telangana Chief Minister K
Chandrasekhar Rao is determined to clean up the
fabled Hussainsagar first by emptying it and then
refilling it with rainwater. In February, Rao directed the
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to start pumping out the water and clean the 16th
century lake before monsoon arrives.
While the authorities are yet to begin work,
conservationists say it is an impractical
venture. For one, emptying a lake that spans
141 hectares with a depth of over 500 metres
is a humongous task, says Jasveen Jairath,
founding convener of Hyderabad non-profit
Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL). Removing
22.6 billion litres of water requires round-theclock pumping for up to 50 days, admits an
official of the Hyderabad Metropolitan
Development Authority (HMDA). This
translates into hundreds of crores of rupees
(see Impractical clean-up plan on p21). Since
the government is yet to make public the
detailed project plan, no one knows where and
how the lake water will be released.
Conservationists say the water may be
released into the Musiriver, that flows 9 km
south of the lake. In that case, the murky water
of Hussainsagar will further pollute the Musi,
the water of which is not fit for bathing, say
SOUL activists.
We have emptied and refilled small ponds in Kolkata to restore the health of the water bodies, says
Mohit Roy, environmentalist and president of Kolkata-based non-profit Vasundhara. But using the method
to restore the health of Hussainsagar seems impractical. Ecosys- tem of small ponds is simple while that
of lakes is complex. Pumping out Hussainsagar requires a complex management of the biodiversity of the
lake, Roy adds.
Cleaning up the lake through this crude method is infeasible for another reason: it involves dredging out
the sludge that has remained deposited on the lake bed for over 450 years. SOUL estimates that the lake
built by Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah of Qutub Shahi dynasty for providing drinking water to the city could be
holding 4.4 million cubic metres (cu m) of sludge. Given that earth-movers can dredge a maximum of 1

million cu m of sludge a day, it would take four years to complete the task. For transporting this amount,
220,000 trucks, each with a capacity of 25 tonnes, need to be pressed into action.
Besides, de-silting is not a simple process, warns Hyderabad-based environmentalist K P Reddy. It is not
feasible to de-silt immediately after emptying the lake as high moisture content of the sludge would not
allow movement of earth-movers. Since physical and chemical composition of dredged material is
complex, Reddy suggests that the government should conduct scientific studies about its properties,
identify stabilisation mechanism, and then specify the mode of disposal. If disposed of without protective
lining, hazardous wastes and faecal matters present in the sludge would contaminate surface water and
groundwater.
But such a scenario seems unavoidable as there is little coordination between GHMC, responsible for
keeping the lake water clean, and HMDA, which works on catchment restoration. The Superintendent
Engineer (Lakes) of HMDA, B L N Reddy says GHMC has not kept his department informed about the
restoration plan of Hussainsagar.
Shailendra Joshi, principal secretary of the Irrigation Department, cites another reason why Raos dream
project would fall flat. Filling the lake only with rainwater is impossible as most of the runoff gets
obstructed due to poor drainage network in the catchment. Joshis statements are corroborated by a
study by Rammohan Reddy of Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University (JNTU), Hyderabad, who found that
the lakes surrounding area does not have a good network of stormwater drains. Even if HMDA revives
the entire catchment and redirects the runoff towards the lake, Down To Earthsassessment shows it will
take 10 days of continuous rainfall in the monsoon to fill up. But this is less likely as the region is
increasingly suffering from rainfall deficit and recurrent droughts.
Moreover, chief minister Raos dream to restore the health of the lake is likely to remain just thata
dreamunless the authorities manage the flow of municipal solid waste from surrounding residential and
industrial areas (see Dying lake). Every day, 78 million litres of sewage and 15 million litres of industrial
effluents flow into the lake through four drains, as per Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB)
data of 2012-13. The two sewage treatment plants (STPs) near the lake are insufficient to handle the
wastewater load, say SOUL activists.
So, instead of undertaking an ambitious project, the need of the hour is to understand what plagues
Hussainsagar. In last three decades, the lake has shrunk by 40 per cent, primarily because of
encroachment by both public and private agencies, according to non-profit Forum for a Better Hyderabad.
To save the lake, conservationists, including K L Vyas, convenor of Save the Lake Campaign, have
moved the High Court of Andhra Pradesh several times, but to little avail.
In 2000, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority issued a notification to protect the lake, but there
have been instances where it gave in to the real estate lobby and allowed residential colonies on the
catchment. In 2006, HMDA initiated Hussainsagar Lake and Catchment Area Improvement project and
set up STPs and wastewater interception and diversion structures. It also installed fountains to aerate the
lake to improve its water quality. But these measures are lying defunct. Maybe, Rao should revisit these
unfinished plans first.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/dry-cleaning-hussainsagar

3. Sewage pond called Mansarovar

Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta [1]
Issue Date:
2015-4-15
To restore Shahpura lake, also known as Mansarovar, Bhopal Municipal Corporation must innovate its
sewage treatment system
Shahpura Lake appears clean following
initial restoration work of the Bhopal
Municipal Corporation. There are still
concerns about its water quality (Photo:
Sanjeev Shekhar Roy)
THE MUNICIPAL authority of Bhopal is
scrambling to save the image of the lake
city, literally. Since September last year,
they have been frantically removing
sludge, algae and water hyacinth from
Shahpura lake, one of the most polluted
lakes of Bhopal. They are also installing
metal mesh around the lake to prevent
plastic waste and other debris from entering into it. The lake will regain its glory by April 2016, claim
officials of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Shahpuralake, also called Mansarovar, came into being in 1974-1975 after an earthen dam was built near
Chunabhatti village in the southern part of Bhopal under the Betwa irrigation scheme. Surrounded by
hillocks, it became the third important lake in Bhopal after the Upper and Lower lakes. People started
depending on it for drinking water, irrigation and pisciculture. Within a few years, housing colonies
replaced the hillocks and encroached the lakes catchment area, spanning 8.29 sq km. By early 2000s,
the lake turned into a sewage pond. People living in the surrounding areas repeatedly complained of the
stench to BMC but to little avail. BMCSrecent attempt to clean the lake began following an order by the
National Green Tribunal (NGT), which was hearing a petition by Bhopal-based environmentalist Subhash
Chandra Pandey in 2011. Pandey had stated that the lake water has been severely contaminated by raw
sewage.
Laboratory analysis of the lake water gives credence to the complaints. According to Madhya Pradeshs
Bureau of Designs for Hydel and Irrigation (BODHI), biological oxygen demand (BOD) of the lake water
was 19.2 mg/liltre during 2011-12. Going by the standard set by the Central Pollution Control Board,
water with such high BOD level is not suitable even for bathing. Harish Chandra Kataria, chemistry
professor at the Government Geetanjali Girls P G (Autonomus) College, Bhopal, who regularly analyses
the lake water, had also found high levels of nitrates, phosphates and coliform bacteria, indicating
sewage contamination.
BMC plans to remove the pollutants and revive the lake in two phases by spending a whopping Rs 12
crore. In the first phase, it will clean the lake and install structures such as metal mesh to prevent further
pollution. The second phase involves conservation and maintenance of the lake and its surrounding
areas. BMC plans to develop the lake as a tourist centre. The states Urban Administration and
Development Department (UADD) has sanctioned Rs 4 crore to BMC for restoration of the lake, says

Pravin Bhagwat, state coordinator,

UADD. Analysis of the restoration plan,
which BMC submitted to NGT in
September 2014, shows it is not
adequate to keep the lake clean.
The lakes surrounding residential
area, also called New Bhopal, has a
108 km long sewer line with six
pumping stations and two sewage
treatment plants (STPs). But these are
inadequate to handle the wastewater
generated by the ever- expanding
population of the area. The sewerage
system is 40 years old and is
crumbling. The bio-filter plants at the
STPs do not function properly. Treated
effluent from the STPsare discharged
into nearby drains that pass through
densely populated slums, carrying
untreated sewage, before joining the
lake.
In 2008-09, Savita Dixit, chemistry
professor at Maulana Azad National
Institute of Technology, Bhopal, found
high concentration of heavy metals like
copper, chromium, lead, cadmium and
manganese in the lake water. She has
linked it to idol immersion. Since the
lake is used for pisciculture and
irrigation, researchers say the heavy
metals may have entered the food
chain.
To check the contamination from idol
immersion, BMCs lake restoration
plan suggests creating separate
structures away from the lake. To
prevent sewage water contamination,
the plan suggests setting up more
STPs and intercepting all drains joining
Shahpuralake and carrying the sewage
water to STPS for treatment.
Researchers say STPs may fail to
handle the wastewater load generated
by the urban sprawl of New Bhopal.
Kataria suggests that BMC must
introduce decentralised treatment
techniques at all the drains joining the
lake. These techniques include simple
biological processes involving
microbes, he adds.

Such measures will go a long way in preventing groundwater contamination, which does not find a
mention in BMCs plan.
Polluted lake water has already contaminated groundwater around the lake. Katarias analyses show that
the levels of nitrate and phosphate in the groundwater are at least double the limit prescribed by WHO for
drinking water. His colleague Sonal Trivedi also found faecal coliform in the groundwater around the lake.
Sanjeev Shekhar Roy, chief chemist with BODHI, says about 90,000 people depend on the groundwater
pumped from areas around the lake. Tankers regularly tap tubewells located near the lake to supply
drinking water to Chunabhatti and other areas. Since water tainted with faecal coliform cannot be treated,
people should avoid using contaminated tubewells, says Kataria. Roy says BODHI had worked with
researchers to implement decentralised wastewater treatment techniques around the lake on a pilot
basis. He has seen considerable change in the quality of water in the shallow wells dug in the vicinity of
the lakes following implementation of the pilot projects.
Following BMCs initial restoration work, the lake now appears clean. But there are still concerns about its
water quality, says Abhijeet Saboo, urban planner, studying lakes of Bhopal.
Saswat Bandhyopadhyay, head of the department of environmental planning, Centre for Environmental
Planning and Technology University (CEPT), says BMC should be careful while implementing
conservation measures. It should not concentrate on architectural and ornamental steps but should focus
on reviving the quality of lake water. Bandhyopadhyay is the key person involved in preparing a
restoration plan for the Upper Lake. Dixit adds that periodical monitoring of the lake water quality and
infrastructure is important. BMC should include these in its lake restoration plan.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/sewage-pond-called-mansarovar

4. Left to dry
Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta [1]
Issue Date:
2015-3-31
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation hopes to arrest the city's dipping groundwater by reviving its dying
lakes. But in the absence of strong wetland rules and intention, the efforts will prove futile
Encroachment of feeder channels and illegal excavation of
lake bed are responsible for the decay of the Sarkhej Roza
lake (Photo: Sushmita Sengupta)
THE WATER table of Ahmedabad, like in most cities in the
country, is dipping at an alarming rate, with the levels in
many regions plummeting to more than 100 metres below
ground level. The reasons are the sameunfettered
urbanisation and industrialisationand so is the citys
proposed solutionrevive the groundwater levels by
restoring its lost lakes.

The solution may sound simple but executing it on the ground is a daunting task. An optimistic
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) says it will identify the lakes under threat by March end and
then draw a plan to revive them.
Lost lakes
Associate professor at Gujarat University, Hitesh Solanki, who has documented the status of several
lakes in the city, says development around the lakes led to encroachment of the natural waterways,
resulting in their death. One example is the Sarkhej Rozalake, which is located 8 km southwest of the
main city. This peri-urban area was turned into an industrial hub in 1998 and brought under the
jurisdiction of the citys municipal corporation. The lake, built by Sultan Mehmud Begda in the 15th
century, has monuments of archaeological importance, which are a popular tourist attraction.
Before 2004, migratory birds, including cormorants and flamingos, were often seen there between
December and February, says Bhavana Ramrakhiani, convenor, Ahmedabad Community Foundation
(ACF), a non-profit working on environmental issues. She adds that the construction of high-rise buildings
on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway in 2004-05 led to the loss of greenery in the area. The human-made
lake was part of a network of lakes in the area. It traditionally received water from the elevated Shingoda
or Makarba talaav(lake), which received water from lakes (in Prantij and Santej villages) near
Ahmedabad, says Vasudevan Nair, deputy general manager of AMC, who looks after the heritage
department of the civic
body.
In just seven years, the
Sarkhej Roza lake has
transformed from a lake
to a dry patch of land
(Photo: Ahmedabad
Community Foundation)
The problem began when
the inflow of water from
the feeder Shingoda
talaav stopped because
of encroachment of the feeding drains connecting the two lakes. Today the Sarkhej Roza lake has water
for just three months during rains. The high rate of evaporation in the area does not allow the water to
stay for more than three months and this period is too short to allow groundwater recharge in the area,
says Nair. Till 2005, tourists would enjoy boat rides on the lake throughout the year, says Shafi Ahmad,
who sells beads and metal rings in the area.
Abdul Gani, a frequent visitor to a dargah in the area, says that groundwater was always shallow in the
area, but in the past seven to eight years it has dipped to 15 metres. I used to take bath in the lake
during summers, but it is now dry most of the year.
Uphill task
Talking about how difficult a task it will be to revive the lake channel,Ramrakhiani says Makarba talaav is
not even notified as a lake in the government records. The other major issue is that the land mafia around
the area digs away the soil from the lake bed for the construction of buildings. The municipality claims it
has lodged complaints several times against these builders to stop the excavation but there was no
positive outcome.
Nair explains that the high rate of excavation from the lake has lowered the level of Makarbatalaav much
below the level of SarkhejRoza and this has stopped the natural flow into the lake. Non-profit ACF says

illegal soil excavation from the lake started in 1998-99. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was
renovating the monuments around the lake during this time, but they did not stop the illegal excavation
because they are only supposed to take care of the monument and not the water body adjacent to it,
says an ASI official.
Encroachment of the natural drains between the two lakes, lowering of the lake bed of Makarba talaav
meant rainwater stopped flowing between them, says Nair.
In 2009, with the help of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), there was an attempt to fill
up the Sarkhejlake, says Arif Agharia, senior conservation assistant, ASI. Agharia said that ASI protested
against this plan of bringing water into the lake by artificial hume pipes.
In November 2012, AMC started laying stormwater drains in Sarkhej village and connected the drains to
the Makarba lake. This brought some life to the Sarkhej lake in the monsoon of 2013. Ramrakhiani says
this temporary solution is effective during the monsoons only. Solanki adds that analysis of the water
collected in the Sarkhej lake after the monsoons showed high concentration of phosphate in the water
which indicates that domestic sewage was entering into the lake through the stormwater drain.
The same story holds true for almost all the other lakes in the city, including the Chandola lake, the
largest lake in the city. In 2000, Ahmedabad lawyer Shailesh Shah filed a public interest petition to save
the water bodies of Ahmedabad. In response, the court ordered the authorities to preserve the lakes and
ponds of the state in 2002. The verdict also ordered the state to undertake urgent measures for checking
pollution in the lakes and rejuvenate the water bodies. But more than a decade later, the municipal
corporation is yet to identify the water bodies that need to be protected. Nair says though the
commissioner has ordered immediate identification of the threatened lakes of the city, it is not clear
whether Sarkhej Roza will be one of them.
Experts say the fresh attempt to revive the lakes will fail till the time effective wetland rules are put in
place. Tej Razdan, convener of Jheel Sanrakshan Society, a non-profit based in Udaipur, says, The
present wetland rules are toothless. Shashank Shekhar, a hydrologist working in Delhi University, says
immediate programmes are needed to revive the water bodies. Nair says that the programmes should not
only work on the lakes but also on the feeder channels and catchment areas to make them encroachment
free. This can happen only if the government is committed.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/left-dry

5. Saving city lakes

Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta [1]
Issue Date:
2015-3-15
To counter the rapid decline of its lakes, Karnataka is creating a new authority with powers to fine and
imprison encroachers and polluters. Will it be able to
reverse the trend?
Over two-thirds of Bengalurus lakes have lost large
parts of their catchment area (Photo: Leo Saldanha)

ON FEBRUARY 9, the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka passed a Bill to create an authority for
management of lakes in the state. The Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority Bill
(2014), which has been sent to the governor for approval, provides for a Karnataka Lake Conservation
and Development Authority. Though the state already has a Lake Development Authority (LDA), it has not
been able to check the decline in the number of lakes or the deterioration in the quality of water. LDA
chief executive officer C K Shivanna says the body is toothless because it lacks legal power. The new Bill
seeks to address this shortcoming.
The number of lakes in Greater Bengaluru has drastically reduced due to anthropogenic factors. From
207 lakes in the 1970s, the number came down to 93 in 2010, says T V Ramachandra of Centre for
Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru.
Lakes such as Madiwala, Bellandur, Horamavu, Akere, Ulsoor and Hebbal are covered by weed as
sewage is allowed to flow into them. More than 50 per cent of the lakes in the city have been encroached,
says Ramachandra. A survey he did in 2007 showed that 72 per cent of lakes in Greater Bengaluru have
seen a loss of catchment area. His research predicts that if the urban sprawl continues to grow at the
current rate, Bengaluru may lose its water bodies, green cover and open spaces by 2020 (see On a
downward spiral). Setting up a new authority is, therefore, a welcome step, he says.

New set up
The new authority will function through a 16member governing council, chaired by the
chief secretary, and an executive committee.
The governing council will also have three
government-nominated environment experts.
Its jurisdiction will extend to all water bodies
within the limits of all the city corporations in
the state and any other water body of the state
identified by the government. LDA, on the
other hand,had jurisdiction only over water
bodies in Bengaluru and those water bodies in
the state which are a source of drinking water.
The most important difference between the two authorities is in their punitive powers. While LDA was not
even empowered to remove encroachments, the new authority can remove encroachments, impose fines
of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 and imprison violators for three to five years. Even LDA officials agree this is
the most crucial part of the new Bill.
Gaps in the Bill
Despite the changes, there are doubts how effective the new authority will be. Leo Saldanha, coordinator
of Bengaluru-based non-profit Environment Support Group (ESG), says government-nominated experts
in the governing council can be removed by the state government. This will prevent them from interfering
in controversial matters, he says. He also says that the Bill allows the new authority to utilise or allow the
usage of the lakes for drinking water, fishing, irrigation, education, tourism or any other purpose it deems
fit. This will give it a free hand to lease out lakes to developers or hoteliers for development as has been
happening under LDA.
Further, there is no role of panchayats in the new authority. The Bill also ignores District Lake Protection
Committees and State Level Apex (Appellate) Lake Protection Committee which were constituted under
the direction of the Karnataka High Court to provide people a platform to seek remedial measures against
problems of encroachment, pollution and destruction of lakes. The aim was to settle grievances locally

and promptly. The order came in 2012 in response to a public interest petition filed by ESG in 2008
against privatisation of lakes.
Shridhar Pabbisetty, chief executive officer of non-profit Namma
Bengaluru Foundation, also says lack of legal power is not the main
problem and even if LDA was given legal powers, the situation would
not improve. But Sukhdev Singh, chief executive officer of Delhi Parks
and Gardens Society, which comes under the Government of Delhi and
coordinates management of parks and gardens in the National Capital
Territory, has a different view. He says legal powers are crucial to
make such an authority effective. He says water bodies in Delhi are
under different agencies for whom conservation is not a priority and
Delhi, too, is trying to set up a water bodies protection and
development authority.
His view is supported by Malik Tariq, public relations and awareness officer of Lakes and Waterways
Development Authority (LAWDA), a body constituted for the protection of Dal and Nagin lakes of
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. The authority operates effectively to conserve the Dal and Nagin lakes.
He says it is difficult to take action against polluters and encroachers without effective powers. Tariq cites
the example of a demolition drive the authority carried out on January 21 in Srinagars Astanpora area
which forms a part of the catchment area of the Dal lake. Since the authority has been formed, we have
orgainsed regular drives for clearing the green belt which is a 200 m strip around the lake, Tariq says.
As and when we get complaints, our enforcement cell along with a deputy superintendent of police
(deputed for this purpose) removes the encroachments, he says, adding, Only sending notices to
violators does not serve any purpose. This is exactly what the problem with LDA was. It had served
notices to many land grabbers in Bengaluru but could not take action. Karnataka, too, needs to adopt the
ways of LAWDA, says S R Nagraj, executive engineer with LDA.
What ails LDA?
LDA was constituted as a registered society in 2002 by Karnataka to conserve and protect the lakes in
Bengaluru and neighbouring area as the city was losing water bodies due to urbanisation and pollution.
Currently, its main function is limited to giving clearances to detailed project reports of lake development
projects to different authorities. However, it has been authorised to undertake many other tasks, says
Nagraj. These include preparing environment impact assessment studies of projects proposed on lakes,
environmental planning, GIS mapping of lakes, monitoring and management of water quality and lake
ecology, and restoring lakes, Nagraj adds.
But toothless LDA is contributing to a slow death of lakes, says Saldanha. It recently failed to clear
encroachments of Chikkalasandralake, the only water body in Bengaluru South taluk, which has
completely dried. The lake is in the custody of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, which has laid a
road on the lake bed. The case shows the utter helplessness of LDA in dealing with such matters.
However, how effective will the new authority be is yet to be seen because its structure and composition
leave a lot to be desired, says Saldanha.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/saving-city-lakes

6. Sunset over Udaisagar

Author(s):
Sushmita Sengupta [1]

10

Issue Date:
2015-2-15
The lake in Udaipur is under immense
pressure and could die in the near future
Vardhan Enterprises is building a hotel
on the island in the middle of Udaisagar
lake (Photo: Jheel sanrakshan samiti)
UDAIPUR, THE historic capital of
Rajasthans storied Mewar region, is
known as the Venice of the East for its
lakes. Maharana Udai Singh II founded
Udaipur in 1559 and built a chain of
lakes to make the rainfall- deficient city
self-sustainable in water supply.
While Fatehsagar and Pichola are more
visited landmarks, just outside the citys
municipal boundary lies Udaisagar,
which is in grave danger of dying. Being the last in the chain of lakes, Udaisagar is fed by the overflow
from upper lakes such as Pichola and Fatehsagar (see Udaisagars threatened catchments). Several
seasonal streams also flow down the catchment hills, spanning 479 sq km, to replenish Udaisagar. But
over the past three decades, the catchments of Udaisagar and other lakes have degraded. Tej Razdan,
convenor of Jheel Sanrakshan Samiti (JSS), an Udaipur-based non-profit, says that according to data
available with his organisation, of the total catchment area, 10-15 per cent has been encroached upon in
the past decade. In the same period, 15 per cent of forest cover has been lost. Moreover, he adds, the
water bodies atop the Aravalli hills that feed these lakes have been choked with marble slurry deposited
after marble mining. A number of national and state highways also pass over the catchment hills. All this
is affecting the water flow from upper lakes, reducing the water level of Udaisagar, says Lakshmi Lal
Sharma, retired lake expert from the Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology in
Udaipur. Reduced rainfall in recent years has compounded the situation, he
adds.
The lake is also being threatened by increasing pollution, says Pradeep
Kumar Singh, professor at the university. The Ahar, a tributary of the river
Berach, is the lakes major source of water. But more than water, the Ahar
brings domestic and industrial waste into the lake as it passes through
Udaipur city. Hindustan Zinc Limited located in the vicinity of Udaisagar,
extracts the lake water and releases its untreated effluents into it. The
biological oxygen demand (BOD), a parameter used by scientists to
understand the pollution level of the lake, reaches as high as 65 mg per litre which is almost 20 times the
permissible limit. The reduced amount of water in the lake has taken away its self-cleansing power, says
Sharma, adding that the lake is majorly eutrophicated. The polluted water is highly acidic and affects the
groundwater of the neighbouring villages in a diameter of 21 km. For instance, the water in the wells of
Bichari village is not potable at all and cant even be used for irrigation.
But revival of the lake seems seemingly distant. There is an island in the middle of Udaisagar where
rampant construction is happening and even the Supreme Court has given the go-ahead.
Conservationists say the island is an important catchment area for the lake and concrete structures on it
would permanently affect the lakes ecology.
An ugly concrete structure

11

Till a few years ago, farmers lived on the island and farmed on it. In 2008, Vardhan Enterprises, a
Mumbai-based developer purchased most of its land and started to construct a five-star hotel on it. In
2010, Rajendra Razdan, lawyer for JSS, moved the Rajasthan High Court against the construction. Since
1999 Razdan has filed several petitions in the high court to save Udaipurs lakes. In 2012, the court fined
the developer Rs 1 crore and asked city authorities to demolish the illegal construction. The developers
moved the Supreme Court in 2014.
[2]
The developers were desperate. They
told the apex court that the construction
site was not a true island. It was an
island-like area formed by siltation,
explains Razdan. They justified that
they had in no way fiddled with the
ecology of the lake. The Supreme
Court has agreed. The developers
have restarted construction and we can
see many structures on the island, he
says.
According to environmental lawyer
Sanjay Upadhyay, the toothless
Wetland Rules 2010 is responsible for
such a fate of the countrys lakes and wetlands. Under the Rules, a wetland and its drainage or
catchment area need to be notified by the Centre. Since water is a state subject, the first step of this
notification starts with the state government identifying them. Upadhyay says this is where the law is
missing its efficacy. If the state fails to identify the wetland or its catchment then the wetland might be
easily killed.
This is exactly what has happened in the case of Udaisagar, says Ram Niwas Mehta, secretary, Urban
Improvement Trust (UIT) , the body responsible for the overall development of Udaipur. As the laws failed
to save the lake through catchment protection, it has had to be dragged to court more than once in the
last two years, adds Mehta.
JSS believes that the UIT had given permission to construct the hotel due to pressure from influential
people. In 2009, UIT changed the land use of the island from agriculture to commercial under the
Rajasthan Vidhiya Sanshodhan Adhiniyam, 1999. In 1999, the UIT had prohibited conversion,
regularisation or allotment of land which came under the water flow area or the submergence area of the
lake.
JSS is hopeful, though. In November 2014, the apex court passed an order saying that no construction
could be done in violation of the 2013 Udaipur Building By-law in the citys municipal area. Since the bylaw prohibits construction on the submergence area of islands located in lakes, JSS activists say that all
construction activities on the Udaisagarisland should be stopped immediately. Unfortunately, Udaisagar is
located outside the municipal area and the order may not be applicable to it. Tej Razdan says they need
support from eminent environment lawyers. Or else, another lake would be killed. In January, JSS
appealed to the apex court to review its order and extend its scope to prohibit constructions on
Udaisagarlake.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/sunset-over-udaisagar
7. In Srinagar's footsteps?

12

Author(s):
Anupam Chakravartty [1]
Issue Date:
2015-1-31
Unplanned urbanisation is killing lakes that
have saved Raipur from floods for over 1,000
years
Almost all lakes in Raipur, including the
Maharajabandh Talab, are polluted and heavily
silted, says a recent state government study
(Photo: Anupam Chakravartty)
Raipur residents talk about the lakes in their city
as if they are a family. Some lakes are mamas
and bhanjas (maternal uncles and nephews),
others are sisters, and a few are even married
to each other. The citys love for human-made
lakes started a thousand years ago, when the
rulers of Chhattisgarh started constructing water
bodies to ensure steady water supply throughout the year. The oldest lake, Budha Talab, was
constructed in the 10th century by Raja Brahma Dev and the most recent one, Telibanda, in 1935.
Rulers continued the trend through the years because they realised this was the only way to conserve
rainwater in the area that has non-porous soil. At its peak, Raipur had around 200 lakes.
Todays Raipur is a far cry from its past, with just 40 lakes remaining, many of which are nearing
extinction. Official data shows the city has lost more than 100 lakes in the past 25 years or four lakes a
year. The reason: unplanned and rapid urbanisation, clubbed with government apathy. The undulating
landscape of the city, which at one point of time was supporting these lakes, has been encroached upon
by buildings, leaving no space for water to move. The encroachment on lakes leads to floods during the
monsoon, says Ninad Bodhankar, a professor with the department of geology in Raipur University.
In response, the Assembly passed a resolution in 2013, saying that ponds and water bodies are the
states cultural heritage. But it did nothing to conserve the lakes. Instead, the state, which recently shifted
the capital to the outskirts in Naya Raipur, recognises only three lakes that emulate the age-old water
harvesting system.
Passing the buck
The Assembly made the resolution and it stopped there, says former Cabinet minister Ram Chandra
Singh Deo, who authored a book titled Harbadi Main Sabhyata (Civilization in a Hurry). It was Deo who
predicted last years devastating floods in Srinagar in his book, saying that as human encroachments
over the Dal Lake and other water bodies continue, there will be a day when a deluge would wreak
havoc. He points out that in terms of number of water bodies, Raipur is no different from Srinagar. And he
warns that a similar fate is awaiting the city.
But Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC), which is responsible for the upkeep of lakes, has found an easy
way to wash its hands off the taskby claiming that the dirty ones are privately owned. For the irrigation
department the lakes are too small to administer. They are owned privately. The land around the lakes
has been sold, bought, resold and bought again over the years. But the ownership has not been updated
in the revenue records, says a senior corporation official.

13

Let alone conserving the lakes, the authorities are, in fact, destroying them. Take the case of Telibanda
Lake, which was recently turned into a tourist attraction. In July, RMC first turned one of its banks into a
lakefrontdisplacing about 300 families of the fishing communityto build parks and restaurants around
it. It is now covered with concrete paths, while on the other side of the lake, real estate has come up in a
big way.
A Raipur journalist, Zia Khan, explains how polluted the water body has become. There was a drop in
the fish catch from this lake even before the buildings came up due to pollution and sewage, he says. A
study conducted earlier this year by Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management (SSWM), an initiative
supported by a German-government-owned enterprise Gesellschaftfr Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ), bolsters Khans claim. It shows alarming statistics on the extent of pollution in the water bodies and
directly links pollution in the lake with lack of sanitation.
Only eight per cent of the citys population has the option of door-to-door collection of solid waste and
seven per cent of the population dumps waste in the open, which goes to uncovered drains running
through the city during the rainy season, says Varun Shende of Pune-based non-profit Ecosan Services
Foundation, which conducted the study for SSWM. The study shows that Raipur lacks scientific landfills
and there is an imminent threat of water contamination through leachate produced from the untreated
solid waste.
Encroachment at will
Bodhankar says four main industriesoil extraction units, ferroalloy manufacturing units, agro-based
industries manufacturing fertilisers and pesticides, and textile unitshave contributed to pollution and
eventual shrinkage of the lakes. Construction of residential and commercial buildings around water
bodies has decreased the soil cover, leading to decreased percolation and increased surface runoff which
causes floods. Increased used of inorganic fertilisers across the landscape, especially rural areas
surrounding Raipur, has led to eutrophication of surface water, he says.
On the other hand, encroachment of wetlands, which form a catchment for many of these lakes, has
become a major source of carbon dioxide emissions due to oxidation of large stocks of organic matter.
Methane is generated from anaerobic decomposition of wetlands, and its impact on climate change is
over 20 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period, as estimated by US
Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the Chhattisgarh governments study Biodiversity and ecosystem analysis with reference to
traditional water harvesting systems, the lakes have also acquired religious significance over a period of
time, with temples constructed on the banks and idols immersed in the water. With the growth of
residential areas around the temples, the catchment area is highly stressed as older passages for surface
flow stand altered. The study revealed that all lakes, spread over 69.239 hectares, are polluted and
heavily silted.
Flood of diseases
Water samples analysed by Shende and his team show abnormal levels of E coli contamination along
with presence of nitrates in higher concentration in drinking water. In fact, in 2013, 627 cases of
waterborne diseases in the city were a result of
poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions.
Shendes findings are corroborated by Bodhankar
who connects the waterborne diseases to blocking
of drains and subsequent flooding during
monsoons. People blame the water bodies for
flooding but indiscriminate dumping of garbage is

14

what blocks their neighbourhood drains. Wherever there are gaps in the water distribution network, the
contaminated water gets mixed with drinking water, causing diseases, Bodhankar says. Abid Ali Khan,
who conducted a case study for Royal Haskoning DHV, a premier engineering and consultancy
organisation of the Netherlands, in association with GIZ, on improvement of storm water management in
Raipur, warns that low-lying areas of the city will get flooded if rainfall exceeds 100 mm in a day.
As most experts, including Bodhankar, Shende and Khan, say the drainage system is directly linked to
water bodies, the municipal corporation has to intervene. While RMC needs to recognise the importance
of these water bodies, Khan says, drainage has to improve. The sewage system needs improvement
and the catchment area of all lakes should be demarcated so that waste water can be locally treated and
diverted to the lakes. Open dumping of waste has to stop, he adds.
But as with other municipalities, RMC too faces acute staff shortage and the tenures of senior officials,
who can perhaps oversee projects to improve sanitation, are too short for long-term work. In such a
scenario, the Chhattisgarh government and its elected members have to do more than just say that ponds
and lakes are cultural heritage.
Tapping the surface runoff

Rulers OF Chhattisgarh since the 10th century understood the topography

and soil characteristics of the area and took advantage of that to make
water bodies across the city.
The top soil in most of the state has shale and sandstone. It is impermeable
and helps in water retention. This also means groundwater is scarce. So
the rulers, early on, started devising ways to tap surface runoff keeping in
mind the scarce groundwater.
The first lakes were built on land that remained waterlogged for more than
three months. The rulers also wanted to connect the lakes so that every
drop of rainwater is conserved. Because of these connections, some lakes
were considered married to each, some were called siblings and others
were uncle-nephew lakes.
Over a period of 500 years or so, planners of the city made water bodies in
elevated areas in the direction of descending elevation. Once rainwater or
surface water would fill the structure at the highest elevation, it would
overflow or spill into the successive structure, leading to conservation of
every drop flowing towards the stream or river.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/srinagars-footsteps

8. When lakes were tanks

Author(s):
Rohan D'souza [1]
Issue Date:

15

2014-8-31
Bengaluru's lakes were actually tanks created in the absence of a big river
Illustration: Juhi Jha
Bengaluru is on the global map for a variety of reasons. It is an
information technology hub. It is also known for its salubrious
climate, the result of being located 920 metres above sea
level. The presence of several parks, neighbourhood and
central, has led people to refer to it as the garden city. A lesser
known fact is that Bengaluru also has a number of lakes.
According to the city corporation, Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city has 198 lakes.
Bengalurus lakes are not natural lakes, but human-made
tanks created by damming the flow of water at various points.
Three valleys in BengaluruKoramangala and Challagatha in
the southeast, Hebbal in the northeast and Vrushabhavati in
the westdetermine the flow of water in the city. A series of
interconnected cascading tanks were created over centuries
along the inclines of these valleys. One tanks overflow was
carried to the next tank through a wetland system, which included rajakaluves, or canals. In this manner,
six chains of tanks came into being. The water flow in the tanks was regulated through a communityoperated sluice mechanism. The absence of a major river in Bengaluru led to the need for such a system.
There was a need to harvest rainwater which could then be used for irrigation and household needs and
livelihood activities such as fishing. The tanks served this purpose.
The overflow of one tank was carried to another tank
through a wetland system involving canals
(Photoghraphs: Rohan D'souza)
Inscriptions found near some of the tanks suggest that
many of these water bodies preceded the mud fort
settlement of Bengaluru created by Kempegowda, a
local chieftain, in 1537, which sprawled into the city of
Bengaluru as we now know it. One such inscription
found near Agara tank dates to 9th century AD.
Other tanks such as Kudlu and Begur in south
Bengaluru also trace their history to this period. The region in the southern part of Bengaluru came under
the Western Ganga dynasty around 350 AD. The dynasty ruled till 1,000 AD. Kempegowda, his
successors and the British continued this system of creating and maintaining tanks.
A complex maintenance system also came into being. Collective memory of residents who have lived
close to the tanks, or keres in Kannada, offer insights into the maintenance system. Villages near the kere
shared the responsibility of maintaining them. The system ensured bund maintenance, de-silting of the
tank bed and maintenance of the rajakaluves. The Neergunti community was among those involved in
this. The community maintained the rajakaluves and its work was rewarded through a land tenure system.
These canals were maintained by the community whose members were rewarded through a land tenure
system

16

There is reference to this system in the Mysore Gazette compiled by B L Rice, director of the department
of archaeology of the then Mysore state in 1897. He notes, Kodigi Inams represent land granted free of
tax, or on a light assessment, in consideration of services rendered in the construction or restoration of
tanks, or on condition of their being maintained in good repair. Kerebandi and Kerekulaga Inams were
granted for the annual petty repair of tanks. The land granted as part of the Inam tenure system usually
included the wetlands located downstream of the tanks, which were ideal for growing water-intense
crops such as rice and sugarcane. However, who obtained which land depended on the caste hierarchy
and in many instances dominant castes got the more fertile wetlands.
Post-Independence, the government started dismantling the system to replace it with more centralised
systems of maintenance. The Mysore (Personal and Miscellaneous) Inam Abolition Laws Act came into
force in 1954, possibly to counter the feudal land tenure system. However, the Act also impacted the tank
maintenance system. Various government departments which were carried forward from the colonial
times such as the minor irrigation department started playing a larger role in the maintenance of tanks,
especially the larger ones. Currently, BBMP maintains tanks in Bengaluru. At various points, government
departments such as the forest department played a role. The department was brought into the picture
with the recommendation of the Laxman Rau Committee, which was set up in 1986 to look into the issues
related to the tanks of Bengaluru.
The water flow in the tanks was also regulated through a
communityoperated sluice mechanism
The forest department viewed these water bodies purely as
ecological spaces. This also led to a change in the discourse
around these systems. Tanks increasingly started to be
referred to as lakes. In the urbanised environs of Bengaluru,
the now renamed lakes were being seen as ecological and
social spaces that catered to naturalists and recreation
seekers. This also started increasingly dictating how they were
to be maintained.
The tanks or keres in their earlier form had cultural connotations. Many had a deity assigned to it and a
temple in which the deity was located. These were largely local deities, such as Muneeswara,
Duggalamma, Gangamma. There were annual festivals at some of the keres such as Bellandur in South
Bengaluruone of the largest which spread over 350 hectares. However, with increasing urbanisation
and increased pollution, such practices have been discontinued in most of the urban lakes.
An attempt to privatise the management of the lakes by the Lake Development Authority, which was set
up in 2002, was thwarted by a public campaign by a local NGO, Environment Support Group. The
authority, which was mandated to work for the regeneration and conservation of lakes in Bengaluru
district as well as other municipalities and corporations in Karnataka, claimed a paucity of resources,
human and financial, and therefore invited the private sector to undertake the maintenance of these water
bodies and in return use these spaces to carry out commercial activities to generate revenue for
themselves. The Karnataka High Court has since directed a cancellation of this scheme, which brought
the city corporation back to the role of maintaining the lakes of Bengaluru.
Rohan DSouza is a researcher with the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/when-lakes-were-tanks

If only cities can see wetlands (E)

17

Author(s):
Sunita Narain [1]
Issue Date:
2014-7-31
Sixty People died in a building collapse in Chennai last fortnight. There is much more than the municipal
incompetence that needs to be fixed to avoid such tragic incidents. This building was located on Porur
lake, a water body that provides services like groundwater recharge and flood management to an
otherwise water-starved city. If you care to ask the obvious question how construction was permitted on
the wetland, you will get a not-so-obvious response. Wetlands are rarely recorded under municipal land
laws, so nobody knows about them. Planners see only land, not water and greedy builders take over.
It is time we realised that a water body is not an ornamental luxury or a wasted land. A citys lake is its
lifeline. Take Chennai, located at the tail end of all rivers. It has spent a good part of the past two decades
squabbling over rights to the Cauvery water, fighting with farmers over withdrawal of water from
Veeranamlake and also depleting groundwater aquifers around the city to quench its own thirst.
Today it has two choices: desalinate seawater at a price difficult to recover from
its citizens or harvest every drop of rain and hold it in lakes, ponds and
underground tanks for use in the dry period.
It was also in this city that its then and current chief minister, J Jayalalithaa, had
launched an aggressive rainwater harvesting drive. In 2001, it introduced bylaws
that made rainwater harvesting structures mandatory in all multi-storey buildings.
In 2003, it extended this provision to all buildings and then went about monitoring
compliance. All this meant the people understood the value of rainwater. A study
by Stanford University on the impact of the initiative found that where without any
intervention only 9 per cent of the rainwater went back to the aquifer, with
rainwater harvesting it could go up to 30 per cent. This showed up in the bottom
line. In the worst months of drought of mid-2000, groundwater was available in
many household wells and the tanker market was reduced to a third.
This result was even without optimising on the big potential of rainwater harvesting offered by lakes and
ponds that act as sponges. Water experts record over 1,500 water bodies in the city and its vicinity.
These are the real opportunity to secure water future. Unfortunately, in the next 10 years, governments
focus moved from the millions of little water collectors to implementing the one big solution of making
seawater potable. It has set up two plants of 100 million litres per day, but it is struggling to pay for this
water, which costs Rs 50-60 per kilolitre. As electricity costs go up, so does the cost of desalination.
Chennai water utility MetroWater, till recently the countrys only water agency with balanced books, is now
finding itself in the red because of its expensive hardware for supply.
So Chennai needs to do what all cities mustundertake a detailed survey of the wetlands and then bring
every water body and its catchment under legal protection. The Wetlands Conservation and Management
Rules issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change are toothless and
meaningless. What is needed is to ensure that city development rules include a comprehensive list of
water bodies and their catchment. Any change of this land use should not be permitted. Even this will not
be enough unless the city values the water this land gives.
The Central government should provide funds for water supply to only those cities that have brought their
own water sources under protection. The cities must show they have optimised on local water potential
before claiming access to water from far away sources. This will reduce the cost of supply. The city can
invest the saved money in treating sewage, which pollutes the lakes and ponds in the first place. It is this
vicious cycle that needs to be broken.

18

The one water cycle cities need to ensure runs smoothly is where water turned into waste because of
human use is converted back into water fit for human use.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/if-only-cities-can-see-wetlands

9. Everybody loves waterbody

Author(s):
Sayantan Bera [1]
Issue Date:
2013-2-15
Amid murder of an activist, 4,000 missing ponds and 195
FIRs on encroachments in East Kolkata Wetlands, West
Bengal mulls a wetland policy
Owing to encroachments, Bikramgarh Jheel in the heart of
Kolkata has shrunk from six hectares to three (Photo:
Sayantan Bera)
The composure on Pratima Duttas face defies what she has
endured. Rummaging through a pile of photographs, she
takes out one where a girl is walking through a lane submerged in rainwater mixed with sewage. The
photograph was taken a few years ago by Pratimas husband Tapan Dutta near their house. Tapan had
meticulously collected evidence of how a consortium of contractors, Bengal Anmol South City
Infrastructure Ltd, was illegally filling a 280-hectare (ha) wetland near Kolkata. Without the Joypur Beel,
as the wetland is locally known, the low-lying habitations in Bali will face further submergence, Tapan
made people understand. He gathered them, formed Bali-Jagacha Jalabhumi Bachao committee and
filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court in 2009. Tapan was offered money and a flat to withdraw the
case, but he refused. On May 6, 2011, Tapan was shot nine times. With his death, the petitioners fell
silent except Pratima.
On January 14, 2013, the court, in its final judgement, allowed construction to continue in the wetland,
despite findings by government bodies that the work being carried out is illegal. It is a big project...
cannot be stopped, it said.
In 2011, following the courts instructions, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) filed an
inspection report. The report states: The entire area (Joypur Beel) appears to be low lying marshland
with abundant aquatic vegetation . The site has been exclusively filled with fly ash. A high power
committee, constituted by the high court, that visited the site in 2012 said, The wetland has been serving
major ecological functions for more than 100 years as a natural reservoir of flood water and recharge
(ing) the groundwater. The district land and land reforms department had converted the land status of the
project area from wetland on which any construction is illegal to agricultural land where construction can
be done. The project is yet to take mandatory
clearance from the State Environment Impact
Assessment Authority or a consent to establish from
the pollution control board, said the committee which
was formed following a 2011 petition filed against
encroachment on wetlands in the state.

19

East Kolkata Wetlands nurture the largest wastewater-fed aquaculture system (COURTESY : EKWMA)
Although the high court has given its final verdict, Pratima has a long battle ahead. In the criminal case of
her husbands murder, she has moved high court, seeking a CBI inquiry. The state CID failed to
investigate because of involvement of a state Cabinet minister among others, alleges Pratima who, along
with her young daughters, lives under constant threats.
A regular offender
South City Infrastructure, a partner in the construction on Joypur Beel, is not new to encroaching on
wetlands. Starting 2003, it constructed two 40 storey towers by filling 0.4 ha of Bikramgarh Jheel in the
heart of Kolkata.
Witnessing the increase in encroachments, NGO Vasundhara approached WBPCB in January 2006.
Three months later, WBPCB formed an independent committee to recommend corrective measures. The
committee said two of the four towers be demolished and held IAS officers and WBPCBs chief engineers
responsible for giving permission to fill the wetland. The recommendations, however, were not
implemented because of considerable delay. Over the years, Bikramgarh Jheel has reduced from six ha
to three. South City paved the way for more encroachment, says Arjan Basu Roy of Nature Mates. The
NGO has reclaimed portions of Bikramgarh Jheel with excavators. Ironically, South City builders and flat
owners pitched in with funds.
Owing to encroachments, half of the citys ponds have disappeared, points out Mohit Roy of Vasundhara
and author of Old Mirrors: Traditional Ponds of Kolkata. In 2006, the National Atlas and Thematic
Mapping Organization published a list of 8,736 ponds within the Kolkata municipal area. But while
mapping on Google earth, I could locate only 4,500 ponds, says Roy.
South City Infrastructure did not give any response on the issue.
Toll on East Kolkata Wetlands
The 12,500 ha East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) is the only Ramsar site (implying a wetland of international
importance) in the state. Managed by statutory body East Kolkata Wetland Management Authority
(EKWMA), EKW acts as the citys kidneys. It consists of 250 sewage-fed fisheries and processes nearly
750 million litres of sewage daily. The treated water is used in aquaculture to produce 15,000 tonnes of
fish per year and 150 tonnes of vegetables per day. The key ecosystem service is provided by an
interplay of wastewater, sunshine, algae, fish and the creative intervention of farmers.... as a result of this
intervention pathogens within the wastewater get destroyed... the nutrients are entrapped by the algae in
presence of abundant sunshine, and finally treated water is released to irrigate paddy fields, writes
Dhrubajyoti Ghosh in his book Ecology and Traditional Wetland practice: lessons from wastewater
utilisation in the East Calcutta Wetlands. Ghosh is the former chief environment officer of West Bengal
and an expert on wetlands.

Despite their pivotal role, the wetlands are facing crisis. Since
EKWMAs inception in 2006, the authority has filed 195 FIRs
and 25 stop-work notices against illegal land conversion and
encroachments. On many occasions, the field staff was
severely beaten during site inspection, says Bonani Kakkar,
NGO member of EKWMA. The encroachments include

20

educational institutes like Bengal Institute of Technology and Heritage Institute.

In August last year, EKWMA filed an FIR on a real estate project, Sabujayan, which is selling 100 plots in
8 ha. Everyone wants a waterfront house with greenery. The real estate industry is providing exactly that
at a steep price; the folly being there will neither be water nor any greenery left in a few years, says a
senior officer in the state environment department requesting anonymity.
The Salt Lake municipality and the New Town Kolkata Development Authority, meanwhile, are dumping
solid waste in EKW after EKWMA turned down a request for a dumping facility last year. Without political
will, laws are ineffective in stopping the rapidity and rabidity with which wetlands are disappearing, says
Ghosh. It was during his tenure that EKW was notified under the Ramsar Convention. Sadly, says Ghosh,
the Ramsar Convention has wide gaps, especially when it comes to monitoring infrastructure. For
instance, EKWMA has only 16 staff membersall on contractheaded by an IFS officer. The mobility of
the staff members is restricted as they only visit the field with police personnel.
State acts not
When NGO Forum for Human, Legal and Ecological rights filed a petition against encroachment at the
high court in 2011, it resulted in the constitution of the high-power committee to suggest remedial
measures. We wanted the court to act as wetlands were destroyed across West Bengal despite legal
provisions. Tapans death was a wake up call, says Kunal Guha Roy, general secretary of the NGO.
Within weeks of its formation, the committee received 27 complaints. It visited Joypur Beel and other
wetlands in April last year and submitted recommendations to the state chief secretary in August.
A 2010 photo by activist Tapan Dutta shows
wetland being filled with fly ash (Photo: Tapan
Dutta)
The recommendations, which are yet to be
made public, include formation of a state-level
management authority for wetland and other
waterbodies, since the existing Acts and rules
relating to wetland protection vest with
different departments. As the records of
wetlands are held by multiple authorities (land
and land reforms department, fisheries
department and municipal authorities), the
committee recommends that the state
environment department be charged with the
assessment of status of any waterbody in case of any inconsistency in the records held by different
departments.
Among its other recommendations are a monthly action taken report against filling of wetlands from
district authorities to be sent to the state-level authority, and preparing a detailed inventory of wetland and
waterbodies in every district. In accordance with the Inland fisheries Act, all wetlands illegally filled up in
the last five years are to be restored, suggests the high-power committee. In spirit of the Forest Rights Act
of 2006, the committee recommends legal entitlements to those dependent on the waterbodies.
A draft state wetlands policy on similar lines was submitted to the state government in July 2012. But
nothing has moved since then.
Guha Roy puts it succinctly: West Bengal was an industrial cemetery for decades and now, real estate
has emerged as the frontier sector. There is no political will to unsettle this cash cow.

21

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/everybody-loves-waterbody

10. Lost lakes

Author(s):
Bharat Lal Seth [1]
Issue Date:
2012-8-31
Karnataka High Court expected to uphold agreements that allowed private firms to develop lakefronts and
charge entry fee
Traditional users like fishers cannot
access Nagawara lake for their
activities now (Photo: Nitya Jacob)
Bengaluru, once a city of over 2,500
lakes, has lost most of them to
encroachment and construction
activity. The Karnataka High Court is
now likely to compound the problem
with an imminent judgement on
lakefront development. In a verbal,
yet-to-be-finalised order issued in
April, the court upheld four
agreements allowing private
companies to rent lakefront land for
conservation and recreational
purposes and charge entry fees for
recovering costs. The order has,
however, banned any further
construction on lakefronts. According
to the agreements, land around
Hebbal, Nagawara, Vengaiahkere and Agara lakes was leased out to the developers for 15 years by the
Lake Development Authority (LDA).
Set up in 2002, LDA started experimenting with private sector participation for lake conservation in 2004
by leasing out the Nagawara lakefront to a private developer. Two years later, Hebbal lake was also
leased out for a monthly rent of Rs 8 lakh. The idea was to allow developers to finance the rehabilitation
of the lakes, create recreational spaces and charge an entry fee to recover costs. The authority planned
to use the rental revenues to curb pollution in the lakes.
But in 2008, Environment Support Group (ESG), a Bengaluru-based non-profit, filed a public interest
petition seeking effective administration of these lakes in accordance with the public trust doctrine. The
doctrine states that the government must maintain certain resources for public use and protect free right
of access. It is this petition that prompted the ban on further construction. The court has allowed the
developers to charge entry fees, though. The lease agreements were already in existence, so, in
exception to the general rule, developers have been allowed to control access to lakes, says Sunil Dutt,
lawyer for ESG.

22

The petitioners feel the current entry fee of Rs 10-Rs 30 per person bars traditional users, like farmers,
fishers, cattle herders and washerfolk, from accessing the lake. But the developers contend that the
money can be used to beautify the lakes. Unfortunately, there is no existing policy, and whether there
should be an entry fee or not cannot be mandated by the Centre, says Sushil Kumar Srivastava, deputy
director, Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Even for projects under the national lake
conservation plan, making funds available for maintenance is the states headache, says Srivastava.
The developers hope the final judgement will allow them to go ahead with some, if not all, of their planned
work. The court, however, has reiterated an earlier government order to maintain a no-construction, 30metre buffer zone around the lake spread. The order is unlikely to be retrospective, so none of the
existing construction will have to be dismantled, says Dutt. It remains to be seen, therefore, how the
lease will co-exist with the buffer zone mandate. The petitioners are prepared to file a special leave
petition in the apex court if the judgement goes against them.
But the question of how to fund the maintenance of the lakes remains. Manish Michael, general manager
of United Way Bengaluru, a non-profit that signed a memorandum of understanding with the municipal
corporation last year to help rejuvenate 11 lakes, says corporate social responsibility may be the answer.
We have mobilised an active group for two lakes in the past year by raising adequate funds from
corporates, says Michael. In future, a tripartite agreement must be signed between private companies,
city agency and local communities whereby access and buffer zones are maintained, he adds.
LDA now plans to reverse its policy of renting out lakefronts. The authority has drafted the Lake
Development Authority Bill with the hope of bringing more lakes under its ambit and more funds and
human resource at its command. The state government is awaiting the final judgement by the court
before approving the draft Bill. Once the lease terms are over, we do not intend to give lakes to private
companies, but develop them ourselves, says Rama Acharya, public information officer, LDA.
During the proceedings of the case, it was established that up to 100 lakes in the city exist only on paper
because they have been filled to build urban structures like bus stations, roads or garbage dumps.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/lost-lakes

11. Lake in transition

Author(s):
Bharat Lal Seth [1]
Issue Date:
2010-7-15
Is the Pushkar conservation project off the mark?
Photographs by Meeta AhlawatThe Pushkar lake dried
after dredging last summer. The dredging was part of a
lake conservation project funded by the Centre and the
Rajasthan government.

The Rs 48-crore project aims to spruce up the catchment

and concretize existing channels that carry the run-off. The latter is to curb losses through evaporation

23

and seepage when water flows from the catchment to the lake through feeder channels after rains. The
four-metre-deep dredging was done to accommodate the water that might flow into the lake.
But, what happened to the four feet of water (1.2 m) that was in the lake before the project began in
January 2009.
During dredging, said R K Nahar, a geologist formerly with the state groundwater department, a layer of
pure clay was dug out, which resulted in seepage. But V K Sharma, executive engineer with the Urban
Improvement Trust, the implementing agency of the project, said the loss was natural and not because of
negligence.
The agency hired consultants for a soil survey, which gave clean chit to the dredging operation. Except
for 4 per cent of the lake area where there was likely seepage, six-metre-deep clay was in the lake after
dredging, the survey report said. It recommended laying a natural clay layer of 300 mm in the area. An
official of the trust, though, admitted that percolation increased after the clay layer was disturbed. So, they
decided on laying 0.3-0.7 m clay in 40 per cent of the lake bed.
Offering another explanation, O P Hingar, team leader of WAPCOS, consultants for the lake conservation
project, said the four-feet of water in the lake was maintained through tubewells. People did not know
water from the tubewells was discontinued for dredging. So they were surprised when the lake dried, he
added.
But Pushkar is a groundwater-fed lake, argued Nahar, and the authorities must recharge groundwater,
not concretize feeder channels.
Misplaced priorities?
Earlier, rains would recharge groundwater and even in the dry season several springs would flow towards
the lake. These natural sources are all dry now. The withdrawal of groundwater is three times more than
its recharge, according to a study by the states groundwater department.
Attempts to curb withdrawal of groundwater have not yielded results: in 2003, the Central Groundwater
Board banned withdrawal of water in 14 villages near Pushkar.
Drilling machines around Pushkar are common, said Nahar. The lake has shrunk to a third of its size.
What used to be two-thirds of the submergence area is now encroached by hotels and cultivable land, he
added (see map). Amal Kar of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute in Jodhpur supported the
concretization drive. We cannot stop withdrawal of groundwater.
Maximizing surface run-off reaching the lake in that case is a good effort, he said. Besides, said Hingar,
the surface run-off is limited due to sandy soil. The inlet channels are not well graded paths and the
feeders have depressions, which lead to higher evaporation and seepage losses; 94 per cent of rainfall
in the lake catchment is lost enroute, said Hingar.
How much water
The 21.87 sq km lake catchment records an average rainfall of 400 mm annually. Assuming 400 mm
rainfall is accounted for, 21.87 sq km will generate 8.748 million cubic metre of water. The deepening of
the lake by four metres has increased its capacity from 0.79 to 1.196 million cubic metres, which is 13 per
cent of the total generation capacity. The lake will spill over if more than 13 per cent of all rainfall in the
catchment finds its way to the lake. After improvements to the catchment we intend to tap more than
this, said Hingar, to ensure we have carryover water for the next year.

24

Concretizing channels is foolish, because the streams also

recharge groundwater, said Tej Razdan, general secretary of
the non-profit Lake Protection Society in Jodhpur. In their
attempt to top up a deepened lake they have destroyed the
ecology of the area, he added.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/1464
12. Coimbatore attempts to save waterbodies
Author(s):
Ravleen Kaur [1]
Issue Date:
2007-12-31
In times of crisis there are two things one can do: crib and cry
or do something about it. When the groundwater in the
industrial city of Coimbatore plunged to 300 m at some places
four years ago, its corporate houses and residents opted for the
second way out: they took matters into their hands.
All the eight natural water tanks in Coimbatore were silted and
clogged with garbage following large-scale construction activity
since 1998. The dried riverbed of the Noyyal, running alongside
the city, was encroached upon and channels leading to it
clogged. Low rainfall aggravated the problem. According to the
Coimbatore municipal corporation's Citizens' Charter, the city's
daily water supply shrunk a fifth. Agriculture, the main activity of
the people in the suburbs, was affected.
"Water shortage was really acute; we decided to do something about it," says Vanitha Mohan, executive
director of Premier Instruments & Controls Ltd. This was when Siruthuli--meaning a small drop in Tamil-was formed. A clutch of corporate houses came together to desilt the water tanks and the channels to the
river; they pooled Rs 25 lakh each and asked people to chip in more.
It worked. Starting with Krishnampathy, seven tanks have been desilted and store 6,485 million litres of
water. This means adding 17 million litres per day (mld) to the city's supply, which was 25 mld against the
requirement of 120 mld.
The silt collected was used to strengthen the bunds of the tanks and to expand roads. Alongside restoring
the tanks, Siruthuli began roadside water harvesting. With the help of the corporation, it constructed 150
deep bore wells with recharge pits and filter chambers to harvest the rainwater from roads and open
spaces. Today the water table has improved. "The groundwater level in my farmhouse has gone up by 50
feet in the past three years," says Radha Srinivas, a resident of Bharathi Nagar. "Our bore-well was
submerged and I had to bring the motor up by 30 feet," says Kasturi Giri, another resident.
According to the Central Ground Water Board, Chennai, the groundwater level in Coimbatore has come
up by 30-50 feet in the past three-four years. "I would not say that the water level has come up only
because of an ngo's work. There has been good rainfall in the past few years and all 23 tanks in the
district have filled up. But certainly, Siruthuli has contributed positively in generating concern about
water," says Neeraj Mittal, the district collector.

25

Once people saw the results of conservation efforts, Siruthuli became a public movement. The attention
shifted to the Noyyal. On October 2, 2005, over a lakh people walked 30 km along the river to pledge its
restoration.
With the help of the district administration and the Public Works Department, Siruthuli has started
removing the encroachments on the riverbed and building demarcation bunds from Solaipadugai where
the Noyyal originates.
It is an expensive task--the entire project will cost about Rs 25 crore. The District Rural Development
Agency has sanctioned Rs 10 lakh and a scheme was launched in 2005 to collect Rs 100 from every
citizen of Coimbatore. One can find Siruthuli drop-boxes at shops and campaigns see a huge turnout of
schoolchildren, farmers and professionals.
Raising funds is not the only challenge. Of the 25,000 families in Coimbatore's slums, over half are on the
dried water bodies. "The slum dwellers are not there because they want to be there but because they
have no other option," says Mittal. Rehabilitating them is no doubt difficult. But by now the citizens have
learnt that nothing is impossible, provided they are ready to act.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/7045

13. Neermahal: palace on shrinking lake

Author(s):
B BHATTACHARYA [1]
Issue Date:
2007-11-15
-- (Credit: B P ROY CHOUDHURY)In 1930, the ruler of the
then princely state of Tripura commissioned the British
company Martin and Burns to construct a summer resort for
him. The Maharaja got his palace nine years later: in the
middle of a lake. It was aptly called Neermahal--water
palace. Situated at Melaghar in West Tripura district, this
magnificent palace at the centre of Rudrasagar lake is
today a popular tourist destination. But unfortunately it is
also in a dilapidated state.
Human activities around the Rudrasagar Lake in the past
50 years have almost put paid to the water body. Experts
say the lake has shrunk by more than 40 per cent in the last half a century. "Heavy siltation and pollution
from the six brick kilns nearby have made Rudrasagar a pale shadow of its former self, and the palace is
in disrepair" says Jiten Paul, the head of Mukta Mancha, an association of Tripura's intellectuals.
He believes that Rudrasagar is showing the effects of population growth in its adjoining areas. Eighty
three-year-old Kanu Dey, whose father was a palace employee elaborates, "There were only 12 families
living in the vicinity of the lake when Martin and Burn handed over the palace to the maharaja. Today
more than 200,000 people are dependant on the lake."
Many residents like Rahul Das believe "the deterioration of the lake began with the influx from erstwhile
East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1951". The rapid growth of settlements and extension of agricultural
activities played a vital role in the shrinking of the lake. "More than half of Rudrasagar has been taken up

26

for agricultural activities," says Paul. Other experts say that soil erosion due to deforestation in the
catchment area of the lake has caused massive siltation.
Rudrasagar is a confluence of the Noachhara, Kemtalichhara and Durlavnarayanchhara--tributaries of
state's major river Gumati. Environmentalists say that more water-harvesting structures in Gumati's
catchment area could revive Rudrasagar. They believe the lake has not received its due as a site
featuring in the Ramsar list of important wetlands.
Tripura's tourism department also believes that the lake and the monument deserve protection. "After all
more than three lakh people visit Neermahal every year," says Tripura's tourism minister, Anil Sarkar.
But those dependent on the lake have their demands as well. "More than 40,000 families earn their
livelihoods by catching fish from the lake and cultivating the surrounding lands. Nothing should be done to
jeopardize their source of income. We might be settlers, but we have got Indian citizenship by domicile,"
says Manaranjan Barman, a leader of the fishing community of Rudrasagar. He says that the annual
revenue from fishing in the lake is about Rs 25 lakh.
Environmentalist Sumanta Chakraborty says that "conservation plans for Rudrasagar and Neermahal
should be made after considering the types of uses people draw out of the water body". "The plans
should accord adequate importance to food production activities (including pisciulture), improvement of
wastewater quality, groundwater recharge, flood control and wildlife conservation, including habitat for
fish spawning," he adds. Chakraborty believes that agriculture can go on without disturbing the eco-cycle,
if farmers use biofertilizers.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/6834`

14. Swamphen vanishing from Bakhira lake

Author(s):
Kirtiman Awasthi [1]
Issue Date:
2007-8-31
-- (Credit: KIRTIMAN AWASTHI / CSE)It was a bright sunny
morning when I reached the Bakhira lake. Bakhira is
reputed to be the biggest natural wetland in Uttar Pradesh
and is known for its purple swamphens. The birds are
known to be shy. I nurtured hopes of spotting them,
nevertheless. They were soon belied.
It was a perfect bird watching day and not spotting a
swamphen was a disapppointment. But I did not give up
hope and ambled around a waterbody that gave the
impression being an open ocean. But no swamphens, yet.
Obviously, this had nothing to do with their shy nature. After all researchers and birdwatchers have noted
that Bakhira has around 5,000 swamphens. Surely spotting one wasn't asking for too much. Something
was seriously amiss.

27

Its shy nature notwithstanding, the purple swamphen is not really elusive in Bakhira. It has an eyecatching purplish-blue hue, long red legs and toes and a bald red forehead. About the size of a village
hen, the bird lives in pairs and in large communities. The absentee act did not seem normal, especially in
a wetland as large as 29 sq km. Located in Uttar Pradesh's Sant Kabir Nagar district, it provides nesting
ground to a number of migratory birds. Because of its ecological and geo-morphological significance, the
wetland was notified as a bird sanctuary in 1990. It was named after the village Bakhira, close-by.
But ambling around the sanctuary, now a little listlessly, I realised that merely declaring an area as
protected did not help much. Far too many problems were evident even to the causal eye. I wondered
why the officials couldn't see them. There is no proper road network to the sanctuary. An opportunity to
turn it into a largescale tourist centre has been frittered away. Thoughts such as these couldn't, however,
divert me from the primary aim of spotting a swamphen. A ranger told me that the birds were hiding
somewhere in the lush vegetation. There was thick underwater, allright. But 5,000 swamphens hidden in
there? Seemed far-fetched.
In the net
I saw couple of villagers fishing in the vicinity. With nothing much to do, I veered onto desultory
conversation. "What is their catch like?" I asked them. "Hardly, and this despite leaving the net an
evening before. There aren't too many fish left," said Inderesh, a fisherman from the neighbouring Jhugiya
village. Decline of fish stock could probably explain the disappearance of purple swamphens from the
sanctuary.
The reasons for their absence began to unfold. First, a number of seized boats stand in grim testimony to
fishing in the sanctuary. Then, more than 20 fishing vessels.
At one point, more than 30 fish species were found in the wetland. I learnt later that illegal overfishing had
led to an absolute decline in fish stock. Some people harvest phragmites (a reed) from deep inside the
sanctuary. They then use these for roofing and as forage for livestock. And, phragmite patches are a
unique habitat for swamphens. Over presence of humans and disturbance to their nests have had a
negative impact on the birds.
The ranger went on the defensive again. "There is constant vigil. We don't allow fishing," he said pointing
to the seized boat, adding that only traditional fishing methods were allowed. But all this seems to be on
paper. A villager told me that poaching is rampant.
Experts call it the conservation-community conflict. They are right. Even after 17 years of notification, land
rights of the villagers and boundary of the sanctuary have not been settled. Villagers have also not got
compensation. "The government does not care for us. Why should we care for birds?" asked Ram
Chandra of Jaswal village. He told me that some villagers have drained parts of the wetland and
transformed them into fields. Their dependence on vegetation and water cannot be ignored, he asserted.
Amidst this argument, the swamphens, I felt, will soon be forgotten.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/6471

15. The drying up of the Jaisamand lake (E)
Author(s):
Sunita Narain [1]
Issue Date:
2004-1-15
If hydrocide -- the deliberate murder of a water body -- was a
cognisable offence in India, the administrators of Udaipur city

28

would be behind bars.Why? Because the water need and greed of this city has sucked out the water from
lake Jaisamand, an engineering marvel built in 1685 by Maharana Jai Singh. This ancient temple -- not of
stone or granite but of water -- is no, was a massive water body with a circumference of over 88 km...
-- (Credit: Sunita Narain / CSE) So, as the neighbouring city of Udpaipur, also famed for its lakes, tanks
and stepwells, destroyed its own water systems and water scarcity grew, it had no option but to look
beyond for its needs. And the city's thirst gave politicians a chance to promise a miracle -- they would
bring water from Jaisamand lake some 51 km away. It was a plan that suited engineers and contractors
alike. A massive pipeline was laid. Since 1996, some 15-20 million cubic metres of water each year was
promised to the city of Udaipur. This, say some estimates, meets roughly 30-40 per cent of the water
needs of this tourist city. Estimates are that it costs roughly Rs 25 lakh each month to pump the water,
uphill to the city.
But nobody has cared to find out what this is doing to the lake. With its catchment already degraded and
uncared for, its river channels encroached upon, its recharge was already stunted. Now in the last few
years even the Gods have failed to make rain. So, they pump and pump sucking out the last drops .
What is shocking is that administrators know that in the last few years they have been draining the
lifeblood from this lake. In 1999, all live storage -- the living water of a lake, which is replenished over time
through rainfall and recharge -- was completely exhausted. From 1999, officials statistics show that what
was being extracted was dead storage -- the reserved water used only in cases of dire emergency. These
same estimates confirm that, in the next year, even the dead storage will be completely exhausted. The
lake will then be officially dry (see graph: Dry as death [2]).
But the administrators of Udaipur are clever. They have already made alternative provisions for the city's
water -- a dam upstream and another lake. When will this hydrocide stop?
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/the-drying-up-of-the-jaisamand-lake-10708
16. Real estate on water
Issue Date:
2002-6-30
Lakes were critical for Indian cities. They prevented floods and recharged groundwater. Today, these
holes in the ground are either lucrative real estate for builders, the last resort for slum dwellers, or
garbage dumps. In the past decade, concerned citizens have approached courts across the country to
protect lakes in cities. The courts have responded with dramatic verdicts, most notably in Ahmedabad.
But which way now? Even if the lakes are protected, how will rainwater reach them in densely built up
areas? Through stormwater drains. But who will keep them clean? Municipalities have already failed. Will
Indian cities rebuild their water wealth? DOWN TO EARTH assesses
A step well near Connaught Pla (Credit: Preeti Singh / CSE)Concrete
drama
Actsaid the court. The government did not. The realtors are at
the deep end now
since April 182001new construction activity in Ahmedabad has
virtually come to a standstill. The realtors of the commercial capital of
Gujaratone of the two most industrialised states of Indiaare
desperate. Builder after builder talks about diversifying into other
sectors to avoid bankruptcy. More than 700 applications for new
buildings are pending with the authorities and no new construction is

29

happening in an estimated 70 per cent of the city's land. The overall loss of business in real estate could
be up to Rs 6500croreestimates the president of Federation of Real Estate Developers Associations of
Gujarat. And this does not include the 250-odd ancillary industries that depend on real estate
developmenthe says.
Why? Because the Gujarat High Court acted in response to a public interest petition filed in October 2000
to protect lakes and increase water availability in the city (see box: Courtspeak: The script). After waiting
for almost six months for the authorities to respondthe court restricted new constructions in a radius of
500-10metres around 137 pieces of land that the additional resident deputy collector had listed as lakes
in his affidavit dated November 202000It also directed the authorities to ensure that "lakes are used as
lakes". At least 65 of these 'lakes' exist only on paper -- from houses and schools to stadiums have been
built on them with official sanction.
It is a bind for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (amc)the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority
(auda) and the state government. Officials and politicians say the order has held development to ransom.
But they have no alternative plan to protect waterbodiesa fact highlighted by the court's exasperation. A
lot of buildersand even the Indian Institute of Managementhave filed affidavitsasking the court to modify
its order. On April 52002the court formed a five-member committee of experts to advice it on the matter
(see box: People who count ). The committee faces the daunting task of finding ways to protect lakes
when many of them have already been built upon. Howeverthe issue had come to light not because of
experts but citizens who approached the court. Like Shailesh Shaha trader in pharmaceutical raw
materials.
Shailesh Shah vs State of Gujarat Shah lives in Mani Nagar in southeast Ahmedabadwhich neighbours
Chandolathe biggest lake of the city. During his childhoodhe has seen crocodiles in the lake. Todaythe
lake has been reduced to a dry dustbowl with encroachments dotting its periphery. There are several
illegal units that recycle waste automotive engine oil and plastics and dump refuse freely in to the 'lake'.
Water shortage in the area is severe.
The summer of 2000 had seen widespread civic discontent due to water scarcity in several parts of the
state (see 'Riots for water' Down To EarthVol 8No 16; January 152000According to auda's Revised
Development Plan 2011the city's 4.6 million people need 221 million cubic metres (mcm) of water in a
year; the city draws 200 mcm/year from tubewellsagainst a safe yield of 80 mcm/year. By 2011the water
demand is estimated to climb to over 300 mcm/year. The entire region under auda depends on
groundwater. The water table is dropping by 2-3 metres per year: It was 12-15 metres in 194060metres in
1984and 100 metres in 1996. And there is too much fluoride in the groundwater.
Yet on July 13-142000when it rained 508 mm in 24 hoursthere was widespread flooding in the city's
suburbs. And then water scarcity returned as soon as the monsoon got over -- so much so that it became
a political issue in the September 2000 elections to the amc. The bjp lost control of the amc for the first
time in 13 years to the Congress party.
Now Shah also runs a civic action group that is ideologically affiliated to the bjp. Concerned about water
scarcity and government inactionhe along with 69 other residents of the area collected Rs 10each
towards legal fees and filed a public interest petition. They pleaded that
The government of Gujarat present its water policy;
Provide land records of big and small lakes in and around Ahmedabad as on (say) 1960 and their
present status;
Remove encroachments from the Chandola lake; and
Desiltrevive and recharge the Chandola.

30

Petitions were also filed to revive the two other lakes: Lakhudi and Memnagar. The court combined the
matters. Shah recalls the court commending him for raising the issue. Buthe sayshe would never have
approached the court if he'd known that his petition would lead to restriction on building activity. He says
he tried to withdraw the petitionbut the court refused. Several of his friends have rebuked him for what his
actions have led tothough he denies receiving threats from builders.
Real estatereal politik
A senior journalistwho has covered politics for more than three decadessays that if he were the editor of a
daily newspaperhe'd have a reporter regularly covering the real estate beat because that's where the real
politics lies. Surendra Patelchairperson of audais also the influential state-level treasurer of the bjp. In
2000the bjp government repealed the Urban Land Ceiling Act of 1976releasing a lot of formerly disputed
real estate for development.
In September 2000after the court had ordered amc and auda to crack down against illegal
constructionsthe state urban development minister went on record to say that the buildings should not be
demolished. The municipal elections were round the corner at that time. Two months laterthe court
ordered disconnection of electricity connections to 150 buildings for non-compliance with fire prevention
and safety norms. The issue became a law and order crisis with widespread protests and violence
against the order. The January 2001 earthquake showed how builders had flouted norms. And after the
high court restricted new construction around lakesthe General Development Control Regulations (gdcr)
were modifiedallowing constructions nine metres away from a waterbody.
Realtors explain that the business became big after the textile mills of Ahmedabad closed in the late
1980s. With economic liberalisation bringing in a lot of money in the early 1990sreal estate prices went
through the roofpeaking in the mid-1990sand then falling again. Down To Earth spoke to some builders to
understand how the sector operates. On the condition of protecting their identitythey explained how the
builder-politician nexus "can work". It is by no means impossible for builders to have prior information on
which area is being earmarked for development. They can buy land from farmers in these areas at rates
of agricultural landand get incremental value once the land is included in a town planning scheme (see
box: Death by development ). The builders point to at least three clear ways to appropriate lakes.
Lakes usually belong to the revenue departmentand revenue land is the easiest to encroach. Once
squatters take overthey obtain political patronage in return for votes.
The land use is legally altered in the government records to make room for other public utilities like a
stadium or a park or a school. It includes building houses for poor people. But once construction
beginsthe builders can step in and create 'stock'selling it at market rates.
It was a common practice earlier in villages to grant rights to people to harvest produce from lakesfor
examplewater chestnut. Over a periodsuch lands got registered in their name. Builders purchase these
lands and develop propertybut this requires the collusion of the village sarpanchthe circle inspectoror
officials of the revenue or urban development departments.
Precaution: a forgotten principle
Almost all the people who spoke to Down To Earth -- town plannersarchitectsbuildersofficials -- were
critical of the court order. They questioned the scientific basis of restricting new construction as most of
the area has already been built upon. But then nobody has another figure that is based on science.
Besidesthe order cited the Supreme Court's ruling in the Surajkund and Badkal lakes casein which the
apex court had restricted all new constructions in a five-km radius (see p36). Nobody was appreciative of
the precautionary principle in the absence of any concrete proposal by the authorities.
Another obvious question: if the powers that be are convinced that the court order is flawedwhy haven't
they asked for its modification? Apart from requests to permit reconstruction of structures affected by the
earthquakeDown To Earth could not find in the court papers any mention of a move from the authorities

31

for a modification of the order. The auda chairperson said that the authority requested the court to modify
the order. But he avoided sharing the paperwork on this with Down To Earth .
Journalists who have covered these issues for years say the authorities want the court order to collapse
under the weight of mounting public pressure. Builders talk about labourers' woes due to loss of
employmentwho are in any case exploited and underpaid. The auda chairperson and bjp treasurer said it
was wrong to raise the question of any pressure tactic to provoke public anger against stopping of
development projects. He retorted: "If the court order is not rightdevelopment comes to a halt. We can't
grant development permissions on 95 per cent of the land. What's the point? How will the city develop?"
He questioned the logic of stopping development merely for lakes. He said the court overlooked the
public interest litigation (pil)and that he is pained at the fact that the court has shut its eyes to the
fundamental question of encroachment. He demanded a stronger order from the court to be able to
remove encroachments.
The mayor of AhmedabadHimmatsinh Patelwhen asked about the administration's failure in removing
encroachmentssaid: "Encroachment hai hi nahin " (There are no encroachments). When asked about the
widespread encroachments around lakeshe said the encroachers return soon after municipal authorities
remove them and that it was not possible to keep out the temporary establishments of migrant
workerswho are helpless and harmless anyway. When asked about the waste oil that is illegally dumped
on the bed of the Chandolahe said it was the duty of the environmental authorities to stop such activities.
He also indicated that cities do not usually have lakesnot like in villagesand that wherever you have lakes
in the city there's bound to be filth. "Where will the water for lakes come from in a built up area?" he
questioned. But when asked how he planned to recharge lakeshe said: "The lakes have been dug up and
left there. If God so wisheswater will reach the lakes." As for floods in the city durng monsoonhe said that
not much can be done in the case of a natural disaster.
Most of the lake land in the city falls under the revenue department. The collector of Ahmedabad could
not be contacted. But it is worth noting that the advocate general of Gujarat has appeared in the court on
behalf of amc and the additional advocate general has appeared for auda. A government pleader has
represented the state government in the case.
As things standthe role of the committee will be crucial in deciding which way the case proceeds. Another
factor that will have a bearing on the case is that one of the two judges on the two-judge benchB C
Patelwho took a keen interest in the matterhas been shifted to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. A
new judge will take his place after the court's summer vacation ends. Watch this space for what happens
next.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/real-estate-water

17. Waiting for a miracle

Issue Date:
2002-6-30
Citizens approaching the courts for protecting lakes in cities is all very well. But in the end, it is a choice
between using land for water or real estate -- a choice that has to be made. The Centre for Science and
Environment provides a perspective
Fishing in filthy waters: encroachments and
garbage threaten the unique ecology of the Dal lake
of Srinagar (Photo: SUNITA NARAIN / CSE)THERE
is no need to establish here that all Indian cities

32

face chronic water shortage, particularly during summers. That government agencies are increasingly
failing to meet the water demand of a rising urban population. And that the water table is falling all the
time due to over-extraction from underground aquifers. All cities in the country relied on lakes and other
waterbodies managed mostly by local bodies that stored the monsoon rains for the remaining part
of the year. But that was before the government took over water supply. And after the government took
over most public lands in cities, the state of these lakes has become very sorry: they are waterless,
polluted, silted up, encroached, built upon, commonly used as defecation grounds or simply outlets for
sewage.
Here, we are more concerned with the number of public interest petitions filed in courts across the
country to save lakes and other waterbodies in cities. The representative case studies presented here
(see boxes) are only indicators. Down To Earth has details of several similar cases from various parts of
the country. It is clearly a rising trend. There are certain common features to all the cases.

They have been filed in the face of water shortage and government apathy. In fact, most of the
petitioners say that the government is the main problem.

They are responses to encroachment (under political patronage) or government-authorised

changes in the use of the land of the lakes or their catchment areas.

Several petitioners faced resistance, even threats, from land sharks and real estate developers
with political connections.

Although water policies talk about protection of waterbodies, there is no clear framework for this.

There are no clear laws to protect urban waterbodies and their catchment. Too many corrupt and
confused authorities.

Town planners and architects have failed to see the value of waterbodies in cities. Cities are
waterlogged during monsoons and water scarce in summers. Stormwater is drained out to sea
and groundwater, even if polluted, is widely used.

The judiciary has combined well with citizens groups to save several waterbodies in Indian cities. Lets
take a closer look at the circumstances that are creating this new consciousness.
Identification parade
The first hurdle: in a built up area, how do you know a lake or its catchment? Take the case of
Ahmedabad. A city of a few million was looted of its lakes and even their memory was buried in
government records. Only after the court ordered the authorities to produce the details of land records did
the matter come to light. There is no way the administration would have made the effort to dig up old
records if ordinary citizens had demanded the information. Now, the high court committee has to identify
the lakes that can be revived. For that it would need to set the criteria on which the decisions should be
based, which would depend on priorities. At every stage, information is crucial, and the government
infamously doesnt like to share it. Vested interests will try their best to misrepresent the available
information.
In Delhi, once 508 waterbodies were identified by a joint survey, the committee appointed by the court
suggested killing waterbodies smaller than 4,000 sq metres. As if a 3,900- sq metre-waterbody was not
worth conserving. Once the lakes of a city have been identified, then comes the tricky part: marking out

33

the catchment. It is very difficult to establish the course that rainwater would take in a heavily built up
area, as it cannot follow the natural gradient.
This is the main criticism of the Gujarat High Court order: there is no point in a blanket restriction on new
construction in a built-up area as there is no scientific basis to show that rainwater would reach the lakes.
But there are no studies to show a more viable distance that buildings should maintain. The court had to
take a decision in the absence of data from either side. It ruled that water scarcity was too serious to
ignore and applied the precautionary principle. Now, it is up to the committee to come up with scientific
data to base decisions on.
Legal protection
People concerned about lakes are petitioning the Supreme Court or the high courts because there is no
other legal framework to identify and protect them. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution (Protection of Life
and Personal Liberty) has an indirect bearing on the matter. The Environment (Protection) Act and the
Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act can be used to notify certain ecologically harmful
industries, operations and processes to protect waterbodies from pollution. The precautionary principle
and the public trust doctrine (which makes the government the trustee and safe-keeper of all natural
resources meant for public use) are also applicable, and various Supreme Court and high court orders
have used these. The National Water Policy does mention waterbodies in the section on the revival of
traditional water harvesting systems, but says little else. The Rs 637-crore National Lake Conservation
Plan, launched in 1994 by the Union ministry of environment and forests, covers only 20 lakes across the
country, including the Dal lake of Srinagar, where the plan has hardly worked (see p5).
Source: Amit Kakde, CEPT, AhmedabadWater, it must
be remembered, is a state subject, and waterbodies in
cities are at the mercy of land owning agencies of state
governments, be they the departments of revenue,
fisheries or urban development, or the municipalities or
panchayats. States can legislate to protect them. Two
states, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, have laws that
protect wetlands for fisheries. Legal experts say there
are no laws specifically to protect urban waterbodies,
while there are laws that protect waterbodies in villages.
If the revenue department, panchayats or municipalities
decide to fill up a lake or turn it into a garbage dump, the
only way possible is to challenge them through a PIL in
the respective high court or the Supreme Court. Hence
the large number of petitions in the higher courts to
protect urban lakes. But protection of lakes and their
catchment is only half the story. The real challenge lies
in ensuring that these bodies are supplied unpolluted
rainwater, that is, they are recharged.
Recharging urban waterbodies
There is only one way to convey rainwater to lakes in built up areas: stormwater drains. In all Indian cities,
these drains connect with sewerage, which shows what municipal town planners think of rain. Even if a lot
of effort is made to separate stormwater drains from sewerage, their maintenance is a major issue. A
stormwater drain choked with garbage and silt is a common site in Indian cities. The municipality is
responsible for their maintenance. Town planners point out that it is not enough to ensure effective, clean
drains. Cascading tanks have traditionally been built in India to tap overflow. In modern cities, this is not

34

possible as tanks/lakes are in the middle of heavily built up areas and an overflowing lake can mean
serious flooding. The way out, town planners say, is interconnecting lakes.
Stormwater runoff problems are addressed most effectively by sound land use planning... Urban local
bodies are required to recognise that storm water runoff control should be incorporated into the routine
planning functions of local governments..., writes Amit Kakde, an engineer in a paper for the Centre for
Environmental Planning and Technology.
After serious flooding during the 2000 monsoon, the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA)
initiated its Rs 4.5-crore Vastrapur Lake Development Project. The project includes extensive stormwater
drains leading to the lake as well as extensive use of recharge wells. Moreover, provision has been made
to connect the Vastrapur lake to the lake at Prahaladnagar, where AUDA has an ambitious housing
development project. The authority has also provided for low-cost housing to the people who live in
shanties built around the lake. But Vastrapur is a high-profile area where the administration is willing to
put in money. How many other Rs 4.5-crore schemes can AUDA come up with?
Real estate matters
Many of the cases presented here show petitioners running into trouble with real estate developers. The
politician-bureaucracybuilder nexus is nothing new to India and has contributed liberally to the Indian
urban nightmare. Be it safety features like fire fighting measures and making buildings that can hold their
own in earthquakes, builders have always managed to flout norms (see Republic Quaked Down To
Earth, Vol 8, No 19, February 28, 2001). Encroaching lands of lakes is hardly a consideration for land
sharks. Nimesh Patel, an architect who works with INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural
Heritage), points out that apartment blocks constructed on filled up lakes fared quite badly in comparative
terms in the massive earthquake of January 26, 2001.
The muscle power of builders and their willingness to use it is reflected in the Bhimtal case, where the
real estate developers threatened the people protesting against their constructions. Their political clout
can be judged by the fact that after the high court order restricting new constructions in a radius of 5001,000 metres around lakes, the Gujarat government changed the General Development Control
Regulations to permit construction nine metres away from waterbodies. Rajeev Kathpalia, town planner
and architect, is opposed to the very idea of blanket building by-laws as they are notified in Indian cities.
He says they dont make for efficient town planning as they dont take into account the varying conditions
within a city.
The reluctance of urban development authorities and municipalities to protect lakes is clear in
Ahmedabad. They are yet to submit any concrete plans to recharge lakes and remove encroachments
more than 20 months after the petition was filed. Removing encroachments is no easy task as the poor
people who live in shanties have nowhere to go. Resettlement of encroachers has always been
controversial. Governments have seldom shown the commitment to find viable solutions, while politicians
have exploited the poor for political mileage in elections. To expect the authorities to act in the absence of
any strictures would perhaps amount to criminal negligence. But how many cases can the judiciary deal
with? For every lake that the courts protect under PIL, there are countless lakes that never get a mention.
So what is the answer?
Courts and beyond
The judiciary and the civil society have had to step in because the executive has failed miserably in
protecting lakes. But in the end, the courts have to rely on the executive to implement its orders, and they
function under the law of the land, which are not clear at all with regard to urban waterbodies. So is it a
stalemate? Not quite. The fact that the courts have been successful in protecting at least a few lakes in
cities is proof enough that there is room enough in the Indian Constitution and democratic process for
protecting lakes. What is lacking is a structured framework that lays down the governments responsibility

35

clearly. Who will lay down that responsibility? Or is it possible to take protection and maintenance of
urban waterbodies completely out of the governments hands and hand them over to urban communities?
Still waters: the Surajkund lake in Haryana (Photo: PREETI
SINGH/ CSE)Complete decentralisation is not viable given
the peculiarity of the urban context. For one, it is much
easier to rural communities to take up water conservation
and protection of waterbodies, and there are several
examples of the same. Cities are different: there is a much
bigger premium on real estate, builders and other vested
interests are very strong, a number of different government
agencies own most of the public lands and the politics of
cities work very differently. The concept of voluntary labour
(shramdaan, which has been the backbone of many a rural
water conservation schemes in India) is not prevalent in
cities. And the shocking levels of pollution of air, water and land in cities takes the matter into
another realm altogether.
A public-government partnership is essential in this. One possibility is municipalities tying up with
residents welfare associations to maintain lakes, their catchment and stormwater drains. But such a setup needs to be well defined in legal/ administrative terms, and controlled by adequate scientific know-how
and monitoring by pollution control boards. Till some such things happen, the courts will keep coming
down heavily on the authorities every now and then they have made it clear that costs should not be a
consideration in an important environmental issue. You will have a court asking the police to protect
urban waterbodies. Or a court bringing all new construction to a halt. People who talk about the futlity of
lakes have too much silt in their heads, says Anupam Mishra of the environment cell at Gandhi Peace
Foundation, New Delhi. We need to desilt our heads before desilting lakes.
Based on research by Nayanika Singh and Suresh Babu
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/14767
18. The lake colony
Issue Date:
1999-9-15
Call them the "lakers". Some 10,000 of them. Parts of the Dal (land and water) belong to them. And when
they feel the need to make a floating garden or land on the lake, they simply do it. Especially since the
militancy problem in the Valley began, there has been no stopping them -- neither the government nor the
weeds that get entangled in the oars. What they haven't realised is that their "age-old" practices are now
killing the goose that lays the golden eggs
-- If you have been won over by these lines in the tourism brochure,
Srinagar should top your list of places to visit. If you are in Srinagar,
you will hire a shikara (boat) to take in the beauty of the lake and the
majestic mountains surrounding it. The road on your right, called the
Boulevard -- Srinagar's most exciting address -- supplies you with
booming bhangra-rock from Marutis and sirens from ugly-looking Maruti
Gypsy-turned-armoured cars. There are rows of houseboats on your
left. Your shikara man wants to take you to Nehru Park, a governmentcreated island in the lake. Resist him. Turn left, go between H B
Michael Jackson and H B Layla Majnu (H B for houseboat). Enter the

36

'Lake Colony', and you will witness the stuff tourism brochures are not made up of.
The wide expanse of the Dal suddenly narrows into a dirty canal, flanked by a profusion of weeds and
bushes. Even before the boat has proceeded 500 metres, you forget that the waterway is just a part of
the once majestic Dal. From here begin the slums and ghettos that exist on the lake -- some 58 of them
according to a 1986 survey conducted by the Urban Environment Engineering Department. At that time,
the authorities had put the population figure at 50,000, mostly Shia Muslims. Rough estimates today,
however, put the figure at around 100,000.
Lanes and bylanes consisting of water. Boats for transport. Quaint houses of wood, some of them
concrete. The resemblance to Venice ends here. In the lake, the water is choked by weeds, called hill by
the local populace, which also gives the water its dark green colour. The weeds float to the surface of the
water, making it difficult to row at times. However, not all is floating vegetation on the lake. Garbage, too,
finds its way to the Dal. Among the debris floating on the water you can identify plastics, rotting
vegetables and a variety of refuse.
The land on either side of the canals is either used for cultivation or for houses and shops, many of which
sell Kashmiri handicrafts. But the most prominently displayed billboard on this waterway is that of the Ali
Ashgar Blood Bank. Another board is that of a doctor, presumably in great demand in the colony. As
Nazir Ahmed, a resident of Moti Mohalla village on the lake, says: "My wife is suffering from jaundice
because of the lake water." The government provides drinking water to the hamlets but, he says, a lot of
people, especially women, suffer from a host of illnesses because their work (agriculture and housework)
exposes them to the lake water. Most of the tourists who visit this part of the lake are foreigners, says
Nazir Ahmed Kana, a guide and owner of Badami houseboat, which overlooks the Boulevard. When
asked why foreigners are permitted a close-up of the seamier side of the Dal, "To show them how crazy
we are," is Kana's instant response.

Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/lake-colony

19. Save Dal mission impossible?
Author(s):
Ishfaq-ul-hassan [1]
Issue Date:
1999-9-15
The Dal lake is shrinking. It's waters are weed-ridden. Untreated waste finds its way into the water.
People continue to "build" land on the lake area. An ambitious project to save the lake was launched in
1997, but hardly any headway has been made
-- for the people of Kashmir, the unbelievable is happening.
Their famed Dal lake is dying before their eyes. The
government says it is "committed" to save the lake, but ifs and
buts rule the roost. One such attempt to save the lake was
made in 1997 with the launch of the "Rs 500 crore Save Dal
Project". The project was started after the state government
sought help from the Union ministry of environment and forests
( mef ) to restore the lake to its former glory. This was during
Saifuddin Soz's tenure as mef minister. Subsequently, Dal was
accorded top priority under the National Lake Conservation
Plan which includes 21 lake systems across the country.

37

A Project Feasibility Report ( pfr ) was prepared by the mef in consultation with the state ministry of
housing and urban development and a separate body -- the Jammu and Kashmir Lakes and Waterways
Development Authority ( j&klwda ) -- was set up to implement the project. According to the agreement, the
Centre "agreed in principle" to shoulder the conservation expenditure amounting to Rs 297.90 crore, while
the state decided to bear the rehabilitation expense of Dal dwellers estimated at Rs 194 crore.
But, two years later, the ambitious project has hardly made any headway. While Soz blames it on both
the Central and state governments, state minister for housing and urban development Molvi Iftikhar
Hussain Ansari says, "Despite shortage of finances, we have released money. But the Centre has not
kept its commitment." Meanwhile, scientists have started predicting the death of the Dal. Even Ansari,
who is also chairperson of j&klwda , says, "Scientists say that Dal lake will be no more in 30 years, but I
feel that it will die within 20 years."
The genesis of the problem The most serious threat to the lake comes from the swelling population
within and on its periphery. The lake shelters 58 hamlets with a population of 50,000 people, who have
property rights over 300 hectares (6,000 kanals ) of agricultural land and 670 ha (13,400 kanals ) of water
area as per the socio-economic survey of 1986 conducted by the Urban Environment Engineering
Department ( ueed ). All this has drastically reduced the size of the lake. According to ancient
manuscripts, the lake area was 75 square kilometres in 1200 ad . This had been reduced to 10.56 sq km
in 1983, says R D Kundanagar, director, research and development, j&klwda .
The government banned construction of huts and other structures on the lake and the periphery as early
as 1978-79. But encroachments on the lake continued unabated. "This became possible only by greasing
the palms of the officials concerned," sources in the j&klwda say. Besides, there are more than 1,400
houseboats on the lake, a j&klwda report says.
In the absence of Sewage Treatment Plants ( stp s), untreated sewage of Srinagar city also finds its way
into the lake everyday. According to Ansari, "There was a plan to install an stp , estimated at Rs 100
crore, at Nishat Bagh to treat city effluents but due to financial constraints the work on this project is
progressing at a slow pace."
"Although it is mandatory for hotels to install stp s, only one five-star hotel, has done so," Sarmad Hafiz,
legal advisor of j&klwda , says. Wastes, including human excreta, from the houseboats and the hamlets in
the lake are also emptied into it. The pfr notes that the water is contaminated by faeces. "An increase in
the total faecal coliforms was recorded in the Boulevard area," the report says. "It has been found that the
local population usually suffers from gastroenteritis," says Kundanagar.
Rich in phosphorous, sodium and potassium, the sewage provides natural fertilisers to aquatic weeds,
which are, in turn, used by the people as manure for vegetable cultivation."The use of pesticides and
fertilisers for vegetable cultivation in the catchment area and floating gardens on the lake have also
increased the chemical content of the lake water," says A R Yousuf, reader, department of zoo-logy,
University of Kashmir.
Then there is the problem of siltation. According to the pfr , the Dal receives 80,000 tonnes of flow
annually. The heavy inflow of silt, sediments and nutrients from the catchment and peripheral areas of the
lake has also resulted in reduction of the inflow of water and prolific growth of weeds. The red algae
bloom in the lake - first noticed in 1993 - is just one example, say officials at j&klwda. The pollution is also
taking a heavy toll on flora and fauna in Dal wetlands. Microorganisms have vanished altogether and the
population of some indigenous fishes have also been reduced considerably, says Yousuf.
Plans gone awry
The 1997 Save Dal project was not the first such project aimed at conserving the lake. Conservation
attempts were started some two decades ago. Between 1978 and 1997, Rs 71.60 crore was spent on
various "Save Dal" projects under the aegis of ueed . However, nothing concrete has been achieved.

38

The current project envisaged acquisition of the land and water area, which the people living in the lake
own. However, people living in the Dal say the property they own in the lake is ancestral. Says Soz, "Of
course, there are some who have inhabited the Dal for over 100 years... and, yes, initially it was beautiful
to produce vegetables and lotus in the Dal. But now it is getting out of hand and polluting the Dal so we
have to get them out."
After much persuasion, the lake dwellers agreed to vacate, says Soz. The authorities approved a rate of
Rs one lakh and Rs 30,000 for every 0.05 ha (one kanal ) of land and water area respectively, and a plot
of land in a well-developed colony for every family. However, till March 1999, only 335 families (out of
6,000) had been shifted. This excludes 331 families shifted during 1978-97 under previous projects.
The new colonies are also far from developed. "We were shifted to Panch-karwari. Though we were paid
Rs 8,000 for 0.05 hectare of land in the lake, the plot in Panchkarwari was pro-vided to us at Rs 20,000 in
this colony. Our colony is still devoid of water and electri-city supply. And, while we were forced to vacate,
around 50 shops were allowed to be raised illegally in the notified area," says Gulam Rasool, an elderly
resident who was shifted some 12 years ago. Even the stipulated amount is hard to get. "On an average,
one has to give 5 to 10 per cent commission to officials to get it approved," they say.
The relocated families also blame the authorities for failing to fulfil promises. "Every displaced family was
assured a job for one member of the family as we were solely dependent on vegetable cultivation and
cultivation of nadru (lotus stems). Not only were we deprived of it, no job was provided," says Mohammed
Yousuf Sofi, president, Ithidia Committee, a conglomerate of relocated families. "Enough is enough. If the
government will not listen to our pleas, we will go back to the Dal," says Bashir Ahmed Ashraf relocated at
Ashraf colony.
Most of the men are working as casual labourers now. The condition of women, parti-cularly those
involved in mat-weaving, are no better. The raw material is only available in the Dal. "Now it has become
difficult to procure the raw material since our colonies are located on the city outskirts," says Begum Faizi
a resident of Gulshanpora, Badamwari colony.
The interference of local politicians has worsened matters. It is alleged that some poli-ticians do not want
the lake dwellers to be shifted fearing "erosion of their vote bank". Ansari, however, disagrees that
politicians are creating hurdles, "It is some neo-business class and some rich men who do not want the
lake dwellers to be resettled near their plush houses. Politicians have nothing to lose."
Conservation plans
The salient features of the latest conservation programme includes afforestation and soil conservation in
catchment areas, trapping of debris and sediments from the catchment areas by constructing a basin,
marginal dredging of all marshy areas, prevention of pollution by diverting sewage and drainage from
settlements on the peri-phery of the lake and installing a sewage treatment plant and construction of
green buffer areas along the lake.
Though the time limit for the completion of the project was expected to be four to five years, authorities
say the project may get delayed. The whole project is in disarray following tremendous shortage of
finances, say members of j&klwda . According to the latest j&klwda report, the Centre released Rs 50
crore to the state in 1997-98 and 1998-99 as against the promised Rs 200 crore. "The Rs 50 crore was
released during my tenure," says Soz. "Though the ministry of environment and forests at the centre has
always played games, but during my time I did not let them do so.
The present state government has failed to procure any more funds," he says. Of the Rs 50 crore, the
state government has released only Rs 0.75 crore and Rs 18.25 crore in 1997-98 and 1998-99,
respectively. From its own kitty, the state government provided only Rs 24.50 crore for rehabilitation. The
j&klwda , in turn, has utilised Rs 5. 29 crore for rehabilitation and rest has been utilised on conservation.

39

Despite lack of finances, state officials point out that the de-weeding, dredging and aerating processes
have shown results. Two aerators are being operated in parts of the lake where there is a profusion of red
algae bloom.
The government has also procured two dredgers to regain the water body lost due to siltation. Says M
Bhat of j&klwda , "In the initial stages, we have decided to get rid of the silt within 75 metres of the lake
shores. But we will go beyond 75 metres in the course of time. So far, about 5.75 lakh cubic metres of silt
has been cleared from the lake."
The government has also procured a weed harvester. However, despite the lake brimming with weeds,
the harvester is used only twice a year. When asked why the harvester is not used more frequently to get
rid of the weeds once and for all, Bhat says, "We will do it as and when required." And though the
deweeders are rusting in the lake waters, Bhat feels there is a need for more such machines if the Dal is
to be purged of this menace.
With inputs by Mridula Chettri.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/save-dal-mission-impossible

20. Community management of ponds has been a success' Interview

Mohit Kumar Ray, convener of Kolkata-based non-profit Vasundhara Foundation, says the city has been
losing nearly 200 ponds each year for the past two decades. In an interview to Sushmita Sengupta, Ray,
who is an environmentalist by training, says these ponds, called pukur in Bengali, are crucial to the city's
ecology. Excerpts
How many ponds are there in Kolkata and what is
their state?
There have been huge discrepancies in data produced
by government departments. The Kolkata Municipal
Corporation (KMC) has carried out surveys from the
early 2000s but is reluctant to release the list of ponds.
In 2006, it published a list that said there were 3,874
ponds in the municipal area. But the list did not provide
the proper location or size of all the waterbodies.
In 2006, the National Atlas and Thematic Map
Organisation (NATMO), a government organisation
under the Department of Science and Technology,
published Atlas of Kolkata with detailed maps. The number of ponds marked in this atlas was 8,731. But
the NATMO study was based on a 20-year-old database and, therefore, many of the waterbodies it listed
actually did not exist.
In 2007, our researchers at Vasundhara Foundation used Google satellite images and found that the
number of healthy waterbodies (those with clean water) was 4,889. Nearly 75 per cent of these ponds are
privately owned, but used by communities. However, there has been no initiative after 2007 by any
organisation to count the number of healthy waterbodies. Considering that 8,731 ponds existed 20 years
ago as per NATMOs study, we concluded that there was a loss of 3,842 waterbodies in the last two
decades.
I have found that the majority of the ponds are not in good condition due to lack of maintenance and

40

government apathy. Though a lot of them are privately owned, KMC has the right to take over the
maintenance of neglected waterbodies. Filling up of ponds or dumping of waste by their side is also a
common practice. In the past few years, KMC has been more active in maintaining some ponds, but their
efforts are not sufficient.
Why are pukurs important to the city?
Kolkata is a city of pukurs. The citys history can be told through the history of its water bodies. It has
many places with the word pukur attached to their names. For example, Monoharpukur, Ahirpukur,
Bosepukur, Thakurpukur, Paddapukur and Talpukur. There are about 30 streets in the city named after
ponds. The city has waterbodies called Kamala and Bimala which were named after local rulers wives.
These ponds are even older than the TajMahal.
Around one million people in the city, mostly poor, use its ponds every day. Eighty per cent of them use it
for bathing and washing. Many of these water bodies are used for pisciculture. They also store rainwater
and help maintain the water level. The wetlands in the east serve as the receptor for the excess water.
These water bodies also act as a centre of social and cultural activities.
What actions have been taken to save Kolkata's ponds?
The city planners of Kolkata never bothered about the ponds. So Kolkatas ponds had never been
included in any of the urban water resource planning. KMC does not have any specific department or
infrastructure to manage the ponds. Neither does it have an annual programme or budget for pond
restoration. It has taken some initiatives to beautify some large ponds but never focussed on restoration.
Vasundhara Foundation has played a role in organising and guiding the community movement for
protecting and restoring the ponds in Kolkata.
How has Vasundhara done this?
We did a scientific study. It was done in three phases between 2001 and 2007. In the first phase, socialand water-quality surveys of selected ponds were done. In the second phase, we studied the impact of
idol immersion on the health of ponds and in the third phase we studied the ecological conditions in and
around the ponds.
The study, which was partly funded by the Central Pollution Control Board, found that some of the ponds
are being managed very successfully by communities. Lack of technical support from any authority or
institution emerged as the major limitation faced by communities. There is also no network for exchange
of information. So groups cannot learn from each others achievements.
The study developed a water quality standard for the city ponds and identified the need of a financial
programme to assist private owners in managing them. We also found that there is also a need for
capacity building for the citys administrative and planning bodies.
How successful have community initiatives been?
One of our best restoration experiences was at Kazipukur where people from different economic
backgrounds got involved physically and financially to save a waterbody. The process took two-three
years and got completed in 2007. Funds also came from the local member of Parliament. The pond is of
medium size (0.5 hectare) and is used by people for washing, cleaning utensils and bathing. Prior to
restoration, it was just a receptacle of solid waste.
A community organisation was formed and they started the cleaning process. The members included
shopkeepers and residents. They all resolved to stop dumping waste in the pond. The pond was cleaned
and several truckloads of plastic and garbage was taken out. Then the water was pumped out and the
sludge removed. These are small ponds and get filled up by few days of rain.

41

Vasundhara helped the community with technical advice. It was ensured that wastewater did not enter the
pond and went towards municipal drains. Separate enclosures were made for washing clothes. Grass
and other plants were planted near the banks and it was strengthened with soil and wooden logs.
Do you think the present rules are sufficient to protect ponds?
Ponds, by definition, are a type of wetland. But the Wetlands (Management and Conservation) Rules,
2010, does not address the issues of small water bodies like ponds. The rules mention many services of
a wetland but do not mention the use of small water bodies. It thus creates legal problems in identifying a
wetland or a water body. These problems are more prominent in urban areas because urban water
bodies are not considered water resources though they support a large number of people.
Source URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/community-management-of-ponds-hasbeen-a-success--49762
21. One lake vanishes
Author: Sushmita Sengupta
September 15, 2009

Delhi government makes a lake and a

marshland disappear
the Delhi government appears to be
determined to construct buildings on lakes
instead of restoring them. On August 17, the
government filed an affidavit in the Delhi High
Court saying the Mayapuri lake and
Jehangirpuri marshland are not waterbodies
and can be used for development activity. The affidavit was filed in connection with the public interest
petition by non-profit tapas that has sought restoration of the waterbodies of Delhi. The petition is being
heard in the high court since 2000. This year, the non-profit moved a separate application to save the
Mayapuri and Jehangirpuri waterbodies after the Delhi government denied their existence in a (Right to
Information) rti reply.
The government's claim came as a surprise because in 2006 the chief engineer of the public works
department had filed an affidavit saying the Mayapuri waterbody did exist and was spread over 36,000 sq
metres. The latest affidavit said the Mayapuri lake is just an artificial depression caused by the
construction of a flyover on an arterial road passing by the Naraina area adjoining Mayapuri.
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/one-lake-vanishes-3812

22. Aravallis undermined

The structure for measuring water level at Badkhal
is of no use (Credit: GEETIKA JAIN)

42

SC mining ban alone won't save Haryana's natural lakes

THE Supreme Court on May 8 banned mining activities in Faridabad, Gurgaon and Mewat districts of
Haryana. The ban will be in force till the state comes out with a report on how it will restore the ecology of
the 450 sq km area, including the lakes around the Aravalli hills, laid waste by mining. The court passed
the order on a 1995 petition that was later merged with the omnibus forest case the court has been
hearing since 1996.
The apex court till now had been stressing on balancing mining with ecological concerns but satellite
images showing dried lakes convinced the judges an immediate ban is needed. The state government
and the mining lobby had been using the leeway given by previous court orders to carry on mining.The
restoration plan is to be evaluated by the Central Empowered Committee which advises the Supreme
Court on forest related matters and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. "The court first
decided to deal with the mining issue due to public outcry against the lakes drying up. Other issues like
encroachment will be taken up later," said Ravi Kant, legal adviser to the Faridabad-based non-profit,
Shakti Vahini, that has been lobbying against mining in the area. The mining debris has blocked the
natural channels that feed the lakes and deforestation has led to soil erosion and increased run-off that
no longer recharges groundwater.
Actions and words vary
Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on February 27 said Badkhal and Surajkund lakes in Faridabad
and Dumdama lake in Gurgaon would be revived before the Commonwealth Games, 2010. But his
government's department of geology and mines went ahead with auctioning of mines in Sirohi and Khori
Jamalpur villages in Faridabad on March 3, 2009, without bothering about environmental consequences.
It was another matter that no one came forward with a bid because of the ongoing court case. The apex
court stayed the auction on March 18.
The Badkhal and Surajkund lakes, 20 to 30 km from New Delhi, were picnic hotspots till the 1980s. Now
the dry lake-beds are used for sports events to highlight their condition. The Dhauj Jheel in Faridabad too
is drying.
The Supreme Court in 1996 had directed mining leases could not be renewed within two to five kilometre
radius of Badkhal without permission from the central and state pollution control boards. Mining in other
areas continued unabated. Hooda justified mining by saying that the lakes had not dried up because of
mining alone. The mining lobby said pretty much the same in court: the groundwater depleted because
Delhi Government sunk tubewells near the border.
State tourism minister Kiran Chaudhary disowned any responsibility for the lakes. She said she was
responsible only for the commercial complexes in the lake resort. "The irrigation department is
responsible for filling the lake," she said.
Toxic revival plan
The only plan so far to revive the Badkhal lake, prepared by the Haryana Urban Development Authority
(huda), proposed filling the dry bed with slurry from the thermal power plant near National Institute of
Technology, Faridabad. Officials said the flyash would settle at the bottom of the lake and then the clear
water above could be used for water sports. But water contaminated with flyash will have heavy amounts
of toxic nitrates and heavy metals, pointed out S P Datta, director of Nuclear Research Laboratory, Indian
Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi. "A system for removing the flyash will have to be incorporated in
such a plan and that will be very costly," he said.

43

As for the Surajkund lake, Chaudhary said she had given the relevant file to the culture ministry,
overseeing the lake's rejuvenation plan. The Archaeological Survey of India (asi) that has to implement
the plan said it could revive the lake only if the state does something about restoring the catchment area.
"The state should take care that water channels feeding the lake are not disturbed," said B R Mani, joint
director general, asi. No department is willing to take responsibility to restore the lakes; no one knows
who will.
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/aravallis-undermined-3473
23. Who messed it up?
Authors:
Friday 26 August 2011
Author(s): Sayantan Bera
The municipal dump yard on Deepor wetland
(Photo: Sayantan Bera)
The overpowering stench of municipal waste hits
one hard on entering Boragaon. Women and
children from the nearby squatters colony
squabble over the garbage unloaded by trucks
from Guwahati, the sprawling business hub of
northeastern India and a million-plus city of Assam.
A sole adjutant stork, an endangered bird,
meditates on the high rise of waste before being
chased away by a dog.

The 24-hectare (ha) municipal dump yard lies on the eastern corner of Deepor, a biodiversity-rich wetland
near Guwahati. It is also the lone Ramsar site in Assam. Wetlands of global importance are conserved
and protected through the international treaty, Ramsar Convention. The dump yard came up in 2005,
three years after Deepor was declared a Ramsar site.
Wetlands are the kidneys of nature, says Parimal Bhattacharya, former professor at Guwahati University
and member of the Wildlife Trust of India. They recharge groundwater and serve as storm water
deposits. People depend on them for fishing and agri- culture. They also influence a regions microclimate, he adds. With 9.7 per cent of its area under wetlands, Assam is a prominent wetland-rich state in
the country.
Flanked by the landfill on one side, Deepor beel, as the wetland is called, was notified Ramsar site for 40
sq km area. Now, only 10 sq km is available for water spread. On the southern end of Deepor are stone
quarries, adjacent to the Rani-Garbhanga reserve forests, a crucial elephant corridor and habitat of the
hoolock gibbon. Intermittent blasts, thick dust from the quarries and constant groaning of trucks make
Deepor look more like an industrial hub.
Quarrying within Deepor has pushed this once-pristine ecosystem to the brink of disappearance, says a
Planning Commission field report of 2008. It also fixes the blame on construction of a railway line, largescale encroachment, heavy siltation from the denuded hills, accumulation of filth and waste from the
Bharalu and Bahini rivers, unregulated fishing practices and invasion of aquatic weeds.

44

But Guwahati has grown in the last two decades because of construction work on its wetlands, says
Bhattacharya. Its population has jumped from 500,000 in the 1990s to more than 1.2 million now. After
the economic boom in the 1990s, wetlands were sold dirt cheap. The national highway to Dispur, which
once had wetlands on either side, now has shopping malls, apartments and showrooms. Residential
areas like Tarunnagar and Lachit Nagar are also built on wetlands.
With the disappearance of wetlands, flash floods also increased. So much so that it became an issue
during the Assembly elections in April this year. The monsoon last year had brought telling miseries for
the residents of Guwahati.
The National Disaster Response Force was called upon to rescue over 200 people and provide relief to
many others. In June this year, the government started evicting encroachers from wetlands and hills.
Great wetland grab
I was born and brought up around Gandhi Basti, located in the south-eastern fringe of the city,
reminisces Jaideep Baruah. As children, we would fish in the marshy wetlands during rains. But in the
past 15 years, most of the wetlands have been filled up. Flash floods have increased manifold as no
place is left to absorb the excess water. Baruah heads the environment division of Assam Science
Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC), an autonomous body which advises the state
government.
The worsening flash flood situation, says Baruah, was the genesis behind the Guwahati Water-Bodies
(Preservation and Conservation) Act, 2008. The Act notified three major wetlands in GuwahatiDeepor,
Silsako and Borsolu-Sorusola. But by this time the ground situation had already deteriorated.
Silsako, once a 120-ha wetland, has turned into a grand multiplex. It has a tennis court, a hotel owned by
the Tata Group, a hotel management institute, an institute for social studies and land which people say
belongs to Devanand Konwar, the Governor of Bihar who hails from Assam.
On the other side of Silsako are over 1,000 hutments. Most families settled here about 15 years ago. The
collapse of the rural and agricultural economy post-1990s and the boom in construction and service
sector around Guwahati fuelled this migration, says Arupjyoti Saikia, professor at the Humanities
department in IIT-Guwahati.
Dobka wetland and the adjoining agricultural fields near
Guwahati airport will be taken over by the Assam Rifles
The government calls them encroachers. We came here
looking for jobs and bought the land from tribals, says
Nokman Ali, a construction labourer and an encroacher at
Silsako. I have worked to construct the Tata Groups
Ginger Hotel. Why does the government want us to clear
the place when it allowed the rich to build on wetlands?
This is plain double standards, says Jinti Gogoi of Krushak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a civil society
group fighting eviction of marginal families.
Though the government cites wetland encroachment as the reason, there are several other for flash
floods, says Baruah. The networks through which small rivers like Bharalu and Basistha carry water to
the Brahmaputra are fragmented, he says. Pollution and improper sewerage block the flow. The city
never had a sewage treatment plan.
The disappearing wetlands and hill slope destabilisation have worsened the situation. Guwahati has

45

several forested hills, but many have been denuded. The red, slushy mud gushes with rainwater flooding
the city. The soil of the hill is also used to fill the wetlands and as raw material in the construction industry.
Two-thirds of the city was built by filling lowlands and wetlands with the hill soil, says Pulin Kolita
working on the state of Guwahatis wetlands as a media fellow with the Centre for Science and
Environment, a Delhi-based non-profit.
The flashpoint
The government reasons that settlements in the hills denuded them leading to massive erosion, and so
wants to evict the encroachers. But what was conveniently forgotten was the legalised encroachment by
the high and mighty. The first half of June 2011 witnessed eviction drives in many of the 14 forest hills
that surround Guwahati. Hutments were demolished, asbestos roofs and water tanks donated during
elections taken away. The encroachers were not served prior notice of eviction.
This led to massive protests. On June 22, police opened fire as protesters were planning a roadblock
after an unsuccessful attempt to submit a memorandum to the chief minister. Three died, including 10year-old Ruhul Ali who was shot in the chest.
Alis father Yunus lives in Lalmati, a hill that forms the backdrop of the picturesque National Games
village constructed in 2007. I came from Barpeta district to work as a carpenter in Guwahati. Unable to
afford the high rent, I moved to the hill nine years ago, says Yunus. Indigenous tribes like Boros and
Karbis who work as construction labourers, painters, plumbers and daily wagers inhabit the Lalmati hill.
People went to the government asking for pattas (land titles). But the police chose to shoot them
instead, says Gogoi of KMSS. Now they are planning a luxury residential complex that will cut into the
same hill, she says.
Shangri LaHeaven On Earth, the 10-ha residential complex, will have seven blocks, each with 20
storeys. It awaits final clearance from the Union environment ministry but builders are already accepting
booking amounts for apartments that would cost between Rs 35 lakh and Rs 45 lakh.
It is the government which has institutionalised encroachments. The land revenue department sees
wetlands as revenue generators and neglects the need to conserve them, Gogoi adds.
The department has already earmarked the entire Dobka beel, next to the Guwahati airport, for a 52 ha
complex for Assam Rifles. It will affect over 500 farm households and 150 fisher families, says Jafar Ali
of Mehnati Krushak Jagran Samiti, a farmers group resisting the acquisition.
Dobka is connected to Deepor. River Kalmani from
the hills feeds this wetland. After the complex comes
up, neighbouring fields will be submerged and farming
will become unviable. We fear even Guwahati airport
will get submerged. But no one listens, rues Ali.
Borosola-Sorusola and other wetlands which are
critical storm water basins are either polluted or
encroached upon, says Dhrubajyoti Sahariah who
teaches geography at Guwahati University.
Pollutants from the Noonmati oil refinery, owned by
the Indian Oil Corporation, have turned the water at
Sorusola black. Borosola looks like a garbage dump
(see Shrinking wetlands).

Dwindling bird count

46

The other casualty of shrinking wetlands of Guwahati is migratory birds. During winters, Deepor sees
some of the largest congregations of aquatic birds in Assam, states Planning Commissions 2008 report.
Because of its rich avian fauna, Deepor has been selected one of the Important Bird Area sites by the
BirdLife International. But the count has dwindled. In the winter of 1989 we had counted 19,000 birds in a
day in Deepor. By 2008 the number came down to 3,000, says Baruah.
ASTEC has submitted a proposal for an autonomous development authority, on the lines of Chilika Lake
in Odisha, to the state government. This might help solve management issues for Deepor, thinks Baruah.
For a city nestled on the flood plains of Brahmaputra, the fourth largest river in the world, wayward growth
means doomsdays during monsoons. To curb this, the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority is
working on a detailed plan. Choked channels and rivers that link wetlands to the Brahmaputra will be
opened up. Sewage water will be treated before it is drained to the water bodies. Elaborate plans are
being drawn to restore the fragmented network of water bodies.
A day after the three protesters were shot, government constituted a committee headed by Bhumidhar
Barman, former land revenue and disaster management minister to look into the possibility of granting
pattas, to poor landless families living on the hills. However, it will follow a zero-tolerance policy and will
be firm in removing encroachments and human settlements from wetlands, Himanta Biswa Sarma, state
education minister and government spokesperson, reportedly announced.
A month later, when Down To Earth visited the wetlands and the hills, the marginal settlers were still
awaiting a visit from the committee. Work was in full swing at the stone quarries and the dump yard at
Deepor. On the Silsako beel, neon lights from Ginger Hotel gleamed in the dark as a man fished in the
disappearing waters.
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/who-messed-it-up-33915
Webstories

1. Tamil Nadu's temple tanks hold key to water recharge

Author: Sushmita Sengupta
But authorities cement tank beds and fail
to restore water inlet channels
Pammal tank in Kanchipuram district after
restoration (Photo: Sanyukta Dasgupta)

Pammal tank restoration

shows the way

The tank is six hundred years

old and the water in it was
potable 35 years ago. Over the
years, the inlets slowly got
clogged; and the tank was also
affected by siltation. S Indra

47

Kumar says the depth of the

tank decreased to 1.2 metre in
2000. Under ideal conditions,
the depth should be about four
metres.

The onset of the north-east winter monsoon over south India heralds
the arrival of the the float festival in Tamil Nadu, which is held just
after rains cease. Idols of presiding temple deities are floated in the
water tanks on rafts decked with flowers and flickering lamps. The
tanks are usually attached to temples and occupy an important space
in the state's cultural landscape.

In 2000, Kumar, a resident of

the area, thought of reviving the
tank. The tank was in bad
shape, there were dead animals
floating in it and raw sewage
was entering the tank. Kumar
approached the adminstration
but failed to get funds from
them although they promised
support. Kumar then tried to
revive the tank through the
support of Exnora International.
Local residents, schools and
clubs also supported the
programme financially.

But these tanks have another important role. They are tools for
recharging groundwater and absorbing floodwater, says Madhavi
Ganesan, associate professor at the Centre for Water Resources in
Anna University in Chennai.

About Rs 15 lakh was used to

clean the tank spread over 2.6
hectare. Kumar explains that
before 2000, the groundwater in
the neighbourhood of the tank
was highly polluted by the
outflow from nearby tanneries.
After the renovation of the tank,
there is improvement in the
quality of groundwater within
five kilometres radius of the
water body.
Not only this, Exnora
International president
Mangalam Balasubramaniam
says the non-profit maintains
the tank by desilting it every
year.

At present, Tamil Nadu has

2,359 temple tanks. Of these 55
per cent are in good condition, according to P Dhanapal, additional
commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments
(HR & CE) Department, which monitors the tanks. Despite the
monitoring, most tanks dry up in summer and a few are used to dump
the city sewage, says S Indra Kumar, president of Home Exnora, a
sister concern of the environmental service NGO, Exnora
International. Kumar had taken the initiative to revive the Pammal
tank next to the Akkieswaran (Siva) temple in Kanchipuram district,
30 km from Chennai. The non-profit took the help of area residents in
2000. The revival of the tank has improved the quality of the
groundwater within a five kilometre radius of the tank (see 'How
Pammal tank was revived).
Needed: an action plan
The tank's revival can be model for restoring other tanks in the state.
The fund can be raised by HR & CE, municipalities, panchayats and
private trustees, says Ganesan. She adds that the government has to
prepare an action plan and decide on arranging funds raising.
Another key concern about the tanks is their maintenance. Chief
minister J Jayalalithaa is actively promoting the restoration of temple
tanks. The state government has instructed all district collectors to
undertake restoration and rainwater harvesting of the temple tanks
with the assistance of local body authorities says Dhanapal.

Most of the tanks had potable water a few decades back. But lack of
awareness reduced many of them into garbage dumping sites, prone
to encroachment. The inlets of the tanks, which carry rainwater from
the surrounding catchment, are mostly clogged, making the tanks dry
for most parts of the year. After few years, these dry tank beds
become sites of development, explains Kumar. The most striking
example is Thiruvallur district temple tank. The tank remained dry for
many years and was converted into a parking lot by the administration.
Why tanks are drying

48

One of the obstacles in reviving these tanks is that the authorities focus on restoring the tanks only for the
float festival, without looking at its water recharging potential. Residents dump garbage into temple tanks
without realising they are a source of water for them. Parking of vehicles and location of shops and
urinals around temple tanks should be banned so that the water entering the tanks is unpolluted, says
Ganesan. She adds that right now the inlets of the tanks are sealed off and they are merely used for
storing water. All the departments are focusing on using the tanks for storing the rainwater and not
concentrating on the maintenance of the inlets of these tanks which carry rainwater from the surrounding
catchment areas.
There are also schemes underway to put concrete in the base of the temple tanks, which will hamper
water recharge. Ganesan says the bed material of tanks should be alluvial soil, which will help retain
rainwater and at the same time recharge the groundwater in the surrounding area. A city like Chennai,
which receives more than 1,200 mm of rain annually, can use these tanks as systems for harvesting rain.
The rainwater that falls on the neighboring catchment area can be diverted through inlet pipes to these
tanks.
The average groundwater level in the water stressed areas of Chennai have dipped to 30-50 metre below
ground. Restoring natural water tanks can go a long way im improving the city's ground water level and
quality, says Ganesan.
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tamil-nadus-temple-tanks-hold-key-to-waterrecharge-34389

2. Kanwar lake: birds' paradise lost

Researchers and activists call for urgent revival of Asias
largest freshwater oxbow lake
Till the 1980s Kanwar jheel was one of the largest breeding
grounds for migratory birds in the country. The water level in
the lake has declined steeply and eutrophication has set in
(Photo courtesy Ashok Ghosh, professor at Anugrah
Narayan College in Patna)
Once a haven for migratory birds, the Kanwar lake in Bihar,
Asias largest freshwater oxbow lake, is today a dying
wetland ecosystem.
A recent meeting on Wetland Governance in South Asia, held in Delhi, discussed whether this lake can
be saved if it is declared a Ramsar site.
Kanwar jheel, as it is locally called, is located 22 km north-west of Begusarai town. It is a residual oxbow
lake, formed due to meandering of Gandak river, a tributary of Ganga, in the geological past.
Kanwar lake was declared a notified area under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. To check poaching
of birds, it was declared a protected zone by the Bihar state government in 1986; the government of India
declared it a bird sanctuary in 1989. The authorities had notified 15,000 acres (one acre equals 0.4 ha) in
the area as wetland, which makes it six times bigger than Kaladeo National Park in Bharatpur,
Rajasthananother well-known bird sanctuary of India.

49

But the legal protection accorded to the wetland seems to have been of little help. It is shrinking fast. The
lake covered 6,786 ha in 1984, which reduced to 6,043.825 ha in 2004. By 2012, the lake area had
reduced to a mere 2,032 ha, according to a study led by Ashok Ghosh, professor of environment and
water management at the
Anugrah Narayan
College in Patna (see
maps).

Whats more, water level

in the lake has reduced,
there is heavy siltation
and eutrophication (when
excess algae and plant
growth and their
decomposition deprive
water of available
oxygen, causing death of
other organisms) has set
in.
Till the 1980s, the lake
was one of the largest
breeding grounds for
migratory birds. But now
poachers and trappers
have taken over, leading
to a steep decline in bird population. Poisonous pesticides used in farming also pose a major threat to the
birds in the area.
When contacted, district magistrate of Begusarai, Manoj Kumar, said he had recently ordered ban on
sale/purchase of land around the lake after he received complaints about it. The Wildlife Protection Act
1972, does not allow any sale or purchase of land notified under this Act. Kumar clarified that even in
case where the land is under private ownership, selling and buying is not allowed.
But besides banning land deals around the lake, the government seems to have given little thought to
conserving the wetland.
Environmental lawyer Sanjay Upadhyay said if land near wetlands are illegally sold or bought, orders can
be obtained from the courts to stop it. Upadhyaya has fought many court cases to save wetlands. He
says strong regulation for protection of the wetlands is also needed to put a stop to land deals.
The district magistrate could not reply why buying and selling of land of the wetlands was going on
unchecked in the first place. However, he says that the notification area (15,000 acres) ought to be
reconsidered since many people have been living in the notified area for generations and have been
raising objections
Livelihood conflict
Local farmers want only 1,400 acres to be notified as wetland area. They also want the area to be
developed as krishi-evam-pakshi vihar, where agriculture and development of bird habitat can be
carried out in an integrated manner. On the other hand, the Sahnisa class depending on the fisheries
want the canal connecting the lake and the river to be restored in order to restore their livelihood. This
has brought them into direct conflict with farmers.

50

The catchment area of Kanwar lake has a northern part which is at an elevation and acts as a water
divide. The Burhi Gandak river in the south and the west form the other catchment boundaries. There is a
southern 15 km-long irrigation channel constructed in 1951 to drain the excess water for agricultural
purposes; the channel connects the lake to
the river Burhi Gandak.
Silted and choked
Sanjiv Kumar Singh, president of Saviour
Alluvial Ecological Establishment (SAEE)
Society, a Begusarai-based non-profit, said
the canal is all silted up and this has severely
harmed the ecosystem and the fauna in the
lake. According to SAEE, massive inflow of
silt is decreasing the depth of the lake. Every
year, about 3.8 cm of silt is deposited in the
Kanwar lake. Ghosh said non-maintenance
of the canal has choked it up and hence
increases the chance of flooding in the area.
The choked inlet channel of the Kanwar lake that connects it to Gandak river (Photo courtesy
Ashok Ghosh, professor at Anugrah Narayan College in Patna)

According to the researchers, the ecosystem of the lake and the water canal need to be revived soon.
Ghosh explained that the lake has been shrinking at an abnormally high rate, as revealed by a
comparison of remote-sensing pictures taken in 1984 and 2004. Ghosh added that that the depth of water
in the lake now is only a few metres, and hence, the wetland has almost been converted into marsh land.
Weeds have spread across the marshy wetland, leading to the loss of lakes natural biodiversity. Ghosh
added there is no inflow-outflow mechanism existing in the lake right now. Extensive deforestation,
overgrazing, unsustainable agricultural practices, and over exploitation of biomass for fuel, fodder and
timber purposes have stripped the land of its natural vegetation cover, resulting in erosion. The lake bed
has been encroached extensively by the rich farmers.
Sumit Anand, a researcher on remote sensing and loss of wetlands, said that the amount of water in the
lake is declining at an alarming rate due to severe eutrophication. The lake is threatened by pollution and
effluents released by the local inhabitants, causing drying and choking of the inlets of the lake. The water
of the lake has become turbid and acidic in nature. Due to this, the use of the water by the local people
has resulted in skin and digestive disorders among the inhabitants. Anand added that over exploitation of
the sanctuary area is harming and destroying the natural resources.
Ghosh said that there is urgent need for intervention to save this lost paradise. Funds are available with
the state government, he added.
Singh said the entire notified area should be saved, and added that reconsideration of the size of the
notified area should be done as the present sanctuary area also included the residential areas existing
long before the notification came into place. The researchers said a comprehensive management of
wetland and its buffer zone should be taken up involving active participation of the stakeholders. A strong
legal framework is needed for the protection of this notified area said environmental lawyers. For this
mapping of the original extent of the lake needs to be undertaken and then notified.

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What needs to be done to revive lake

1. Mapping of wetland and the catchment area should be done by a committee that includes panchayat
representatives and other stakeholders so that there is no further encroachment
2. Wetland and the canal connecting the wetland and river should be desilted so that inflow and outflow
mechanism becomes active
3. Removal of encroachment and illegal farming from the lake bed
4. No pollutant should be allowed to enter the waterbody
5. Awareness and capacity building programmes need to be undertaken for the stakeholders for the
management of the lake

URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/kanwar-lake-birds-paradise-lost-44693

3. Mining ban around Sasthamkotta lake

Conservation plan in the works for Kerala's biggest
freshwater lake
Sasthamcotta lake (Photo: S. Babuji, Lake
protection council, Sasthamcotta)
People living near Sasthamkotta Lake in Kerala have
received a notice banning them from taking bath,
washing clothes and dumping garbage in the lake. The
notice also forbids mining in the catchment of the lake.
Sasthamkotta lake is a drinking water source for over
700,000 people in Kollam district. It is one of the 25 sites in India included in the Ramsar list of wetlands
of international importance. An alarming fall in water level, and pollution have put the biggest fresh water
lake in Kerala at risk.
The District Collector of Kollam handed over the notice on June 28. A State Pollution Control Board
(SPCB) circular enforcing similar bans was issued earlier on May 11. Susan Jacob, Managing Director,
Kerala Water Authority (KWA) said mining has reduced flow of rainwater into the lake. The surrounding
small hillocks which serve as the catchment of the lake are vanishing rapidly due to soil digging and
laterite mining, she said.
K V Jay Kumar of the non-profit Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM)
in Kozhikkode said that construction activities around the lake cause debris to fall into the lake and
decrease its depth. Planting of water depleting acacia trees around the lake by the forest department has
equally contributed to the drying of the lake bed, he added.
S Babuji of the non-profit Lake Protection Council said mining in West Kallada village, south of
Sasthamkotta, has also affected the lake's water level. Unmindful mining of sand and clay in the flood
plains of West Kallada panchayat has caused formation of big pits. Water from the lake empties into

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these craters which are at lower elevation than the lake, Babuji said. He added houses and hotels
around the lake dump their sewage in the lake and use the lakes water for bathing and washing.
Last monsoon, Kollam district received rainfall far below normal. The lakes level started to recede in
March. In the month of May, out of the total 373 hectares (ha), about 24 ha was dry. Kerala Water
Authority had to stop operating a few pumping stations. Kollam corporation along with four panchayats
suffered a severe water crisis due to this, said Babuji. A KWA official said the storage capacity of the
lake has decreased 30 per cent and admitted the lakes water is highly contaminated. But Jacob said
KWA monitors the lakes water. Every year the algae is cleaned. During the lean period, when there is
huge demand of water, KWA makes sure that the municipality sewage is diverted from the lake, the KWA
director said.
The representatives of the Lake Protection Council had launched an indefinite agitation in the
Sasthamcotta town on April 24. For the improvement of the ecology of the lake, the council demanded:
an autonomous body for management and protection of the lake; an expert committee to prepare a
master plan; a detailed water balance study; pollution control and ban of mining in the catchment area.
Within a few days, the Kerala government called the council to discuss the condition of the lake. CWRDM
was called by the state and asked to draw a comprehensive master plan of the lake in the middle of May.
Jay Kumar said the preparation of the master plan is in the works and it will be completed by August.
URL: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/mining-ban-around-sasthamkotta-lake--1581

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