Meeting held to ignite Agara lake restoration

Saving Agara lake was the agenda for the evening. A brainstorming session facilitated by Citizen Matters was held at Mantri Sarovar apartments, HSR Layout on 15th May.

Vijayan Menon, member of Citizens’ Action Forum and a Koramangala resident, Brigadier R S Murthy of HSR RWA Federation, RTI activist Chandra Shekhar, Muralidhar Rao, member of  Koramangala Initiative, Ramesh Sivaram of Forward150 (Bellandur RWA), Ganesan M of Save Agara group, and Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K, gathered in the evening.

With the High Court cancelling Agara lake’s PPP contract recently, the LDA is open to citizens involvement to save the lake. The residents agreed that the 42-acres lake would be a big challenge to revive. Menon pointed out that without healthy water bodies to revive the groundwater table, future of neighbourhoods would be bleak indeed.

Agara lake. Pic: Anisha Nair

Among the key points discussed, the first step was to get a complete survey of the lake done and delineate its boundary. Participants discussed examples such as Mestripalya and Puttenahalli and how to begin with Agara. Sivaram has been closely involved with the revival of the Kaikondrahalli Lake and shared those experiences as well

Menon talked about their public interest litigation to save Meistripalya lake in Koramangala. He stressed on the importance of citizens’ involvement in saving lakes. Sivaram proposed an Agara lake cleaning campaign to bring the lake into focus and involve nearby residents.

People interested in saving Agara lake can get in touch with Ganesan M at 9845738133.

Comments:

  1. Monisha Belliappa says:

    Hi I’ve bin a resident of jakkasandra for d past 20yrs.I rememeber abt 10yrs bak d lake extending on the other side f d road as well(nxt to lemon grass)n now i see construction wrk going on..was jus wondering if it was legal.
    M sorry if I am posing d wron question t d wron ppl.M jus finished wit my Masters course n m very much interested in conservation related wrks.. so if der s ny do lemme no..
    thank u

  2. Anisha Nair says:

    Monisha, If you are speaking of the whole stretch of the land further down lemon grass that is marked by blue boundaries, that is the Mantri project for building mall and residential apartments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Warnings overlooked: Mumbai floods intensify despite reports and recommendations

Years after the deluge of 26th July 2005, Mumbai continues to flood every monsoon and expert committee reports on flood mitigation lie ignored.

A day before the 19th anniversary of the 26th July deluge, Mumbai recorded the second wettest July ever. Needless to say, the city also witnessed multiple incidents of waterlogging, flooding and disruption in train services and traffic snarls. Some of the explanations for the floods included record heavy rains, climate change, inadequate desilting of drains. There were protests on the ground and outrage on social media.   Incidentally, floods — its causes and solutions in Mumbai — have been studied since 2005, when the biggest and most damaging flood struck Mumbai and claimed 1094 lives after the city witnessed 944.2 mm…

Similar Story

After long wait for landowners, construction set to begin in EVP Township

The EVP Township Landowners' Association is working to develop their 18-year-old township with support from the Tharapakkam Panchayat

For years, long-time residents of Chennai, who bought plots in a suburban township in Tharapakkam, had to endure many hardships before they could rightfully claim their land. However, they did not give up. And now, there is a glimmer of hope as the persistence of the landowners has borne fruit. The local panchayat has also agreed to extend support, so that they can build their dream homes. In 2006, EVP Housing Pvt Ltd released colour advertisements in newspapers and distributed flyers offering plots for sale in Tharapakkam. These plots would form a township known as the EVP Township, situated five…