The ongoing drone-powered GIS-survey and mapping of all lakes in the State is almost complete. As per latest data presented in the recently concluded Karnataka Legislature session, 37% of the lakes in the State are encroached.
District-wise break up shows Bengaluru Urban (88% of lakes encroached), Bengaluru Rural (90%), and Bengaluru South (57%) districts topping the list. Yadgir, Kalaburagi, and Udupi districts have performed the best. Mysuru, Mandya, Tumakuru, Davangere, Ballari, and Chikkamagaluru districts have almost half of their lakes encroached.
The Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records has identified 41,849 lakes spread over 7.78 lakh acres. Of this, survey of 41,225 lakes is complete, and the remaining 624 lakes in Kolar and Hassan districts are yet to be surveyed. Of the 41,225 lakes surveyed, 15,048 lakes are encroached upon. The extent of encroachment identified is 45,046 acres 33 guntas.
J. Manjunath, Commissioner, Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records, said the accuracy of the survey that used satellite images, drones, and on ground survey was accurate to 5 centimetres. “An on ground survey is conducted using rovers, which is then superimposed on digitised revenue maps which have the traditional akarband, using a drone survey. This will give us one of the most accurate status of the lake today,” he said.
This survey has also created the first of its kind centralised database of all lakes. “Since multiple agencies are custodians of these lakes, there was no data on lakes available at one place. The survey has created the first centralised database of all lakes in the State,” Mr. Manjunath said.
Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts have most of their lakes encroached.
“We often say that no lake in Bengaluru City is spared from encroachment . So, it is heartening to see 107 lakes in the Bengaluru Urban district to not have any encroachments. Some of these may be those that have been recently rejuvenated as well,” said V. Ramprasad, Friends of Lakes.
However, he observed that most of the lakes, 90% of them, being encroached in Bengaluru Rural district was shocking. “As urbanised Bengaluru is spreading horizontally beyond the city, lakes in Bengaluru Rural and South districts are also under serious threat, this shows,” he said.
In fact, the extent of encroachment of lakes is much higher in Bengaluru Rural district than in Bengaluru Urban district. There are 837 lakes spread over 27,726 acres 19 guntas in Bengaluru Urban district, 730 of them are encroached and the extent of encroachment is found to be 4,229 acres 21.8 guntas (15.25%). On the other hand, there are 710 lakes spread over 30,032 acres 37 guntas, 643 of them are encroached and the extent of encroachment is found to be 6,252 acres 18 guntas (20.8%).
Bengaluru South district is not far behind. While 57% of the district’s lakes have some encroachment, the extent is limited to 5.24%.
However, Friends of Lakes, a coalition of lake conservation activists and volunteers, has welcomed the centralised database of the ground situation of the lakes as the need of the hour. “The government must put all data, including maps of all the lakes in the public domain, so that the civil society can hold the authorities and the encroachers accountable,” Mr. Ramprasad said.
Responding to a question raised by MLC M. Nagaraju, Minister for Minor Irrigation N.S. Boseraju said that as per a 2012 High Court order there was an apex committee formed at the State level under the leadership of Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, to guide custodians of lakes with its rejuvenation, conservation, encroachment clearance, and upkeep. Likewise, in each district Deputy Commissioner leads a similar committee, who is tasked with encroachment clearance, he said.
All custodian departments who clear encroachments of lakes have been asked to update the same in a particular format so that the centralised database is also updated automatically, sources said.