More than six years ago, when I was living at Brigade Millennium, there were rumours that the neighbourhood Chunchaghatta/ Chunchughatta Lake was going to be drained and would become a bus stand. This lake is one of the three erstwhile connected lakes in Puttenahalli, and being involved with the small Puttenahalli Lake, it was of particular interest. I went to the lake area to check out what was happening, and subsequently, Citizen Matters did a story that woke up the authorities. Recklessness choking pretty Chunchaghatta Lake can be read here. 

The past year has seen renewed activity at Chunchaghatta Lake. Srinivas Alavalli, a resident of Puttenahalli area and active citizen had the following to say about what is being done… 

Last June, some of us started working on the Chunchughatta Kere, Chunchughatta is a beautiful lake, long and wide and with amazing greenery on one side. And nothing else is right about this lake. We discovered all kinds of stuff buried in the lake from clothes to furniture to stuff you don’t want to know about. Every 2nd Sunday a bunch of people (many of them from Brigade Gardenia, thanks to the persistence of Lingaraj Dinni and Grinshina Kartik) would get together and clear the mess. We finally got some help from the BBMP and the local corporator and the MLA and things are moving in the right direction now.

This Sunday 2nd April 2017, yet another volunteer activity – a big push towards the revival is being planned to install benches, fencing, painting and cleanup. The wonderful folks from Youth For Parivarthan led by Amith Amarnath will bring their passion and energy and we want all of you to come.

This is a success story in the making. You should get on the bus and experience the joy of reviving a lake and living to tell the story of lake revival in Bengaluru to your friends and grand children 🙂 It is our city, our lakes. And it is time to bring them back to life.

Please share with your friends, especially in JP Nagar, Jayanagar, BTM, and Bannerghatta Road. This lake is very close to Brigade Gardenia, Palm Springs, Millenium, South City, Elita – if you have friends there, let them know!