Articles by Shilpi Sahu

Kaikondrahalli lake has seen a few ups and downs of late. This is a comprehensive update on the various works in and around Kaikondrahalli Lake. Sewage diversion pipeline work: Last year (May 2016), copious amount of sewage started flowing in from the south-east end of the lake. Despite efforts from the lake team and continuous complaints to the zonal office, this could not be stopped. Early this year, BBMP lake department undertook a sewage diversion work to divert the sewage through a pipeline through the lake. The diverted sewage will drain into the culvert in front of Purva Sunshine apartment…

‘Faire’, in French, means ‘to do’ or ‘to make’ and that is at the heart of what Vigyana Habba aims to achieve. The fair was aimed to encourage a scientific spirit among children that questions, probes and finds solutions. It was not just a show and tell event - participants as well as visitors learned by “doing” stuff. On Saturday, Aug 19th, 2017, over 44 teams participated in the second edition of the Soul Kere Science Fair - Vigyana Habba. The participating students were from grades 1 to 12 of various school and communities in the neighborhood of the lake.…

On Saturday, Aug 19th, 2016, over 45 teams will participate in the second edition of the Soul Kere Science Fair - Vigyana Habba. The participating students are from grades 1 to 12 of various school and communities in the neighborhood of the lake. The event is organized by MAPSAS and supported by Genpact,(Platinum sponsor), Infosys Science Foundation (Gold sponsor), Biocon and United Way Bengaluru. Entry to the event is free and open to all. The teams will demonstrate live experiments that explore the topic ‘Science in everyday life’. The fair is aimed to encourage a scientific spirit among children that…

This is not a picture of Kaikondrahalli lake. But if we could represent the lake of our dreams, we certainly will select this picture of Niagra falls raising a cloud of mist which rains down a faint drizzle in the surrounding areas. Add a few million gallons of murky coloured raw sewage, tonnes of plastic waste, a half submerged buckling lake fence pushed in by the surrounding construction activity, and gushing waters raising a froth and a din among the resident birds, overflowing through the diversion pipes and you have the real picture. It is still beautiful, but not as…

Citizen groups came together and organised the Bellanduru Lake festival with good participation from authorities and citizen stakeholders. The event was organised by citizen volunteers from Bellanduru. The event was sought to bring together all stakeholders and to raise awareness and participation from the general public and seek their ongoing support towards lake revival.  One of the core  organisers said “It is a great start to citizen engagement and ongoing involvement in the rejuvenation of the Lake.  Support and commitment from authorities was encouraging.  Citizens must engage more actively and own up our lakes”. The event was held at an…

Vikhyath Mondreti, a class 10 student from Greenwood High International School Bangalore, was part of the winning team in an innovation challenge conducted by the New York Academy of Sciences as part of their Junior Academy program. Through the course of 70 days, students formed virtual teams and worked with STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Math) professionals serving as expert mentors. There were 91 teams with participants from 51 countries out of which 3 teams were chosen as winners. These challenges were sponsored by major corporations such as ARM and PepsiCo. Vikhyath’s team won the Biodiversity category in which the participants were required to…

The following post was shared by Praveen Singh, a runner. I decided on a whim one fine April morning in 1989 to visit Bellandur lake and I clicked a full Konica roll worth of pictures. I used to live in Indira Nagar and had visited the lake and surroundings for its beauty and also to watch aircraft land and takeoff from nearby runway. Here are some of the photographs. Last week, I took some time off over the weekend to do a "Then and Now" series of photo captures from almost the same spots I had clicked from over 28 years ago.…

A team of ninth and tenth grade students from Greenwood High called Flaming Phoenix, recently competed in First Lego League (FLL) International open championship in Bath, UK. We participated in the international round after advancing in the regional and national round. In the international round, there were 94 teams from 36 countries. Flaming phoenix consisting of team members Adithya Uchil, Adithya Vasisht, Akshay B Shivaram, Ratan Shankar, Rachita Rajesh and Sahana Athreya were placed second place in Robot Game and Project Presentation. What is FLL? FLL is an international robotics competition held all around the world, where participants form teams of…

You are a runner. The customary weekend long run is underway, when suddenly it dawns upon you at the 20th kilometre that you were supposed to get your periods today. Hmmmmmm. May be you are getting it right now, but you are sweating, your nose is running and the body is complaining, so you don’t know for sure if it is the monthly disaster that has commenced (so soon?) or whether these are the aches and pains of a long run. If you have never found yourself in the above scenario, you are likely to be a man. Even if…

Sewage and plastic waste has been steadily pouring into Kaikondrahalli lake for the last few months from the eastern side of the lake. On the evening of 12th May 2016, a private landowner from that side breached the lake bund with JCB and drew a channel to empty sewage from his land directly into the lake. Despite best efforts from the BBMP Lakes dept led by Mr Satish (Chief Engineer), Mr Jagannath (Executive Engineer) & Ms Shilpa (Asst Engineer), and the surrounding community volunteers, gallons of accumulating and fresh raw sewage have been entering the lake for past 4 months.Since…