Bengaluru’s environmental literacy rate is 3.5%; in Uttar Kannada & Shivamogga it is 45%: Expert

Ramachandra stated that the government bodies which should rejuvenate the lake don’t think about decontaminating the waterbodies. “The pollutants are not arrested and the emphasis of rejuvenation is more on civil works rather than the ecological balance. The authorities don’t think about decontaminating the lake and on the contrary, they create an island out of silt in the lake. This results in the contaminants that are there in the silt to get leached to the lake and that’s where the lake continues to be in the contaminated state. So, here the officials can again take up the rejuvenation work. This is nothing but blatant misuse of funds.”

On April 11, 2012, the High Court of Karnataka delivered an unprecedented ruling, directing Karnataka and its agencies to undertake various initiatives to protect, rehabilitate and manage lakes, kaluves (canals) and such other waterbodies in socially-inclusive and ecologically-appropriate ways. A critical part of this direction was to follow the guidelines evolved by a committee headed by Justice N K Patil on “Preservation of Lakes in the City of Bangalore”, and the recommendations were made applicable to the entire state. However, even after a decade, the government has not implemented the guidelines recommended by the committee.

Coordinator and Trustee of ESG, Leo Saldanha, said, “What I also want to highlight is that the Constitution was amended in 1992, making protection of natural resources and wise use of natural resources part of local governance. So, one doesn’t need to ask bureaucracies or senior bureaucracies or senior politicians for help because that is actually a power cast within the Constitution with local governments and local public are actually constitutionally-empowered to hold the local governments accountable. We just don’t use that. We also find that the response of the government of Karnataka has largely been to centralise administrative powers. The Justice N K Patil report is essentially an argument for decentralisation of empowering local communities. Though all the departments had agreed with the report, yet we see how difficult it is to get that report which had consensus from being implemented.”

“Land use planning is still controlled by parastatals such as the Bangalore Development Authority, who are immune to local concerns and needs. Reckless urbanisation and unregulated extraction of surface and groundwater flows — for urban, industrial and farming needs — is resulting in water scarcity even when there is sufficient precipitation,” he added.

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