Lakes

Kaikondarahalli lake is a community resource that has been heralded as one of the success stories of lake rejuvenation in Bangalore. More and more photographers have been flocking to the lake to take photos in the past years.  Since the lake inspires so many, we thought a fitting way to pay tribute to the lake would be to invite photographers to participate in a unique exhibition about the Lake.  Here are the details: WHAT: Bring us your photographs... a leaf, a cloudy sky over the lake, the sun shimmering on the water, a gardener working with the plants, a jogger,…

At the Independence Day celebrations at Brigade Millennium on 15th August, PNLIT Young Rangers were given a few minutes to talk to the gathering of 200-odd residents, about lakes and PNLIT. PNLIT was also given a stall where the youngsters promoted PNLIT's T-shirts, cloth bags and nature walks. Sincere thanks to the Brigade Millennium Residents Federation (BMRF) for the opportunity.PNLIT Trustee Nupur Jain, who has been guiding the Young Rangers said, "the children gave good speeches and very excitedly sold the T-shirts, bags and a nature walk".Registration for the Nature Walk is open. Details below. Date - 20th August 2012 (Monday…

A meeting of lake teams in Bangalore was organised by Arekere Neighbourhood Improvement Trust (ANIT) together with OneBengaluru on 5th Aug 2012. The meeting was well attended by more than 125 people from 20-odd different lake teams including PNLIT trustees and volunteers - Usha, Nupur, Sapana, Vijay, Vivek, Prajna, Vishnu, Siddharth and Mihir.  Usha, Vishnu, Siddharth and Mihir at the meeting Photo: Nupur Jain Directly after the meeting, a team of some 10 people from Kaggadasapura Lake in East Bangalore visited Puttenahalli Lake. They are keen on leveraging our experiences at Puttenahalli Lake to conserve their neighbourhood lake. Below is a…

Shreya Sharma recently planted two saplings at Puttenahalli Lake, to commemorate her seventh birthday.Two saplings planted at Puttenahalli Lake, 28-Jul-2012 Pics: Munish Sharma Shreya's dad Munish Sharma, resident of the JP Nagar neighbourhood Brigade Gardenia Apartments, has "adopted" the saplings for a year. With careful nurturing, the saplings should have grown considerably by Shreya's next birthday. If everyone planted a sapling on her/ his birthday, we would have a billion trees in India every year!⊕

Those familiar with Puttenahalli Lake will know that one end of the lake, towards L&T South City has 100-odd shanty/ semi-pucca/ pucca houses (generally referred to as the encroachment "slum"), relocation pending since the last few years. With human habitation there is garbage, and with no proper garbage collection mechanism in place, this end of the lake has always been messy and very difficult to keep clean. Other neighbourhood people have been adding to the mess by throwing their rubbish at the lake entrance. Now we don't know for how long the residents will live in the embankment but as…

For people like me who have made Bangalore their own ooru in the recent past, it is fascinating to discover that there were once more than 300 lakes that were engineered to connect with each other and serve as water sources for this beautiful city that stands at elevation of 2953 feet. Bangalore Lakes meeting: A glorious past and a promising future-Dr Ravi Ralph CEO, Lake Development Authority (LDA)-Mr Brijesh Kumar Chief Conservator of Forests, BBMP-Dr Ashwin Mahesh, One Bengaluru, Loksatta; Urban Expert-Shri N.S. Mukunda Citizen Action Forum; Abhyudaya-Success stories and lessons learned - group discussion-Sharing best practices10AM to 1PM,…

Whether a human being or a tree, how little we value the aged never realizing the good in them. Just outside our Puttenahalli Lake is a tall tree which had leaves growing on branches too high up to identify what species it belonged to. The branch formation gave no clue either. Perhaps it was deciduous because sometimes only the twigs remained criss-crossing in interesting formations against the sky. Ever since PNLIT assumed charge of maintaining the lake, we noticed the fellow looming outside the lake because, come evening flocks of birds like Rosy Pastors would fly from the lake and sit on its branches.…

During the early days of PNLIT, an anonymous comment was left in our online Guestbook:  "unless until lake is filled with water 365 days, i do not think we are achieved everything. yes, i appreciate all effort. however need to plan for connective filtered rain water reaching from surrounding area."  Others would jokingly tell us that they'll help in arranging water tankers to fill the lake.  Yes, two water issues have always been bothering us at Puttenahalli Lake: - getting rain water into the lake, to raise the water level  - getting water outside the lake, for watering saplings, toilets, drinking.…

The morning started early for some students of  BGS NPS, Hulimavu on Saturday, 14th July 2012. Twenty seven children of Std VIII, accompanied by three teachers, attended a nature walk at Puttenahalli Lake. Bird watcher Jaishree Govind joined Usha, Nupur, Prasanna and Sapana to take the children on a guided tour of the lake that lasted for almost two hours (7:15 - 9:00 a.m.).  Photo: Harish Mahendrakar The water level has reduced due to evaporation and the delayed monsoon but many more birds have shifted residence to our lake. A Grey Heron has joined the resident bird community and the Purple Herons have increased…

PNLIT has been adjudged the Green Star 1st Runner-Up of the People's Green Award at the TCS World 10K Bangalore 2012! The winners were announced at a crowded press conference at ITC Windsor Manor last evening. Prasanna, Usha and Nupur received the award from Kannada actor Mr. Puneet Rajkumar and Mr. Atul Ballal of ITC Windsor Manor.  Prasanna K. Vynatheya, Usha Rajagopalan and Nupur Jain of PNLIT The TCS World 10K which was held on 27th May had launched the People's Green Awards as "a platform to admire and acknowledge people who share this dream to make earth greener and better place to live in."…