How Iblur Lake was saved!

By Mukund Kumar

Having spent the first five years of my work and life in Bengaluru, it was almost a certainty that I would come back to the same city. After a span of six years, working across the USA and Europe as an investment manager, it was an impulsive decision to come back to the Garden City to explore new personal and professional avenues. My new journey began in 2012. 

The return

Culminating with the return was a one-year sabbatical from work. Quickly, the realization dawned that things were not quite as rosy as they had been in the Bengaluru I knew. Much had to do with the fact that I was based in the IT corridor of Bellandur, the exponential growth in terms of professional opportunities and paradoxically, the abysmal state of infrastructure. Despite an intrinsic liking to the environmental and sustainability causes, it was disillusioning at first.

The inspiration

Soon after, I tried to bring some purpose to my life. There was a cesspool of a lake that used to be vibrant next door: Iblur Lake at Sarjapur Outer Ring Road junction. I decided to investigate and curiously, we discovered that the lake was destroyed by the very agency that was its custodian: BDA. This tragedy happened when the planning authority decided to build a flyover and accidentally diverted a major stormwater drain and its sewage into the lake. The water body’s death happened in 2010. Speaking to people around, I found it to be a frustrating story of hopelessness.

Small beginnings

I was fortunate to be connected to a group of local civic activists. I am humbled by all the learning and support received during that period. It was an eye-opener about the contrasting story of neglect by authorities in the Bellandur area that was home to 110 villages, and yet, happy to receive all the booming tax revenue due to the IT boom. One thing led to another and the garbage crisis blew up by the end of 2012. The High Court of Karnataka intervened and mandated that the corporator of every ward must be represented by 10 citizens to oversee the development of the area. The crux was waste management, but not necessarily limited to that alone.

Ward committees

The experience working in the Ward Committee (WC) was useful. It exposed me to the reality of the practical difficulty of what a corporator has to deal with. Stifled budgets for outer city wards with paradoxically larger wards with big needs, besides political pushes and pulls. While it is true that many BBMP officers were earnest, the system was unable to move in the anticipated way. At the beginning of 2014, most civic-activists appointed into the WC resigned to protest inaction and conflict of interest.

Back to the lake

The years following 2015 were limited primarily to one cause alone: Iblur Lake. A small lake of 18 acres needed years of petitions to corporators, MLAs and MPs. Some of the lake land was up for grabs. But by great fortune, the lake was transferred to BBMP, and BBMP (Lakes Division) has some of the finest officers in the state. After much engineering works, the lake finally got restored in late 2018 and was thrown open to the public in the same year. Some of the finest officials in BBMP (Lakes Division) retired soon after, leaving a strong legacy.

Now

I am now part of a small trust called Iblur Environs Trust (IBENT), which is jointly responsible along with BBMP for the upkeep of the lake. We are fortunate to partner with some like-minded NGOs and tap into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding to keep the lake alive. Citizen participation is paramount. Everybody loves a good lake, but few step forward when encroachments are involved, and few had stepped forward when the lake was a cesspool of sewage. Ultimately, citizens have to take collective responsibility for public commons in the same breath that we keep asking for accountability from our elected representatives and officials.

Mukund Kumar is a data science entrepreneur who is actively involved in the rejuvenation of Iblur Lake