Here’s an update on what the team has been doing on Varthur Lake to date:

– met with BDA

– met with Principal Khan who gave us some good background and also introduced us to Dr. TV Ramchandra of the IISc

– met with Dr. TV Ramchandra who suggested that the best option is for us to use legal pressure to get the civic agencies to stop passing the buck.  He suggests going to Namma Bengaluru foundation and the Upa Lokayukta

– gathered input from experts within WR – Arvind Keerthi, Suresh Nair, Tharun Kumar (Ecoparadigm an alternate STP provider)

Main Message

From all our meetings, we’ve gathered that our priorities should be to 1)stop encroachment, 2) desilt lake (wet dredging is a possible technology) and 3)stop sewage from entering the lake (via STP and created wetlands).  Adequately treated STP water should be allowed to flow into the lake since this is one of the primary sources of water for Varthur.  We are going to need a lot of community support for all of the above steps and Latika Menon is working on an awareness creating campaign involving schools in the neighborhood.

To that end, our team’s next steps are:

– walk around the lake (Mrs. Allirani, a teacher at KK High school is familiar with the lake and is happy to walk us around it)

– get a Cadastal map (to identify encroachments) from the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Center in downtown Bangalore

– Meet with Mr. Manivannan (IAS, in charge of Karnataka Water Supply)

– meet with BWSSB to understand their plans for STPs that are being built in the area

– follow up with Mr. Viswanath (who revived Lake Jakkur)

– separately getting a map of Rajakulves in Whitefield (working with BBMP and Gopal Sir on this one).  These will also give us more information regarding the lakes inlets

– Gather the data above to create a DPR request for the BDA (DPR = Detailed Project Report)

– Latika is working with schools to create a “symposium” for children to present detailed projects about the lake