Where are the Lakes
I came to Bangalore a year back adding to the workforce of the IT industry. Never before had I seen a city with such wonderful climate, numerous lakes and a lot of nature’s wonders located in and around the city. But it did not take me much time to see the other side of the picture.
It is a city witnessing changing climate every year owing to the blind cutting down of trees. It is a city where you breathe in smoke and dust every second of the day. It is a city of lakes on the verge of their death.
Yup, Dying lakes of Bengaluru, that is what am gonna talk about today. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see the big banners of real estate projects mentioning LAKE SIDE… LAKE VIEW in bold capital letters. I can feel my heart screaming,”Where is the Lake”. I remember having a discussion with my office colleagues a few days back and one of them mentioned in a light note “There is a lake when they start building the apartments, may be they do the construction on top of the lake.”
In this race to house the IT industry, in this race to have a new apartment constructed almost every month, bangalore’s lakes are suffering in silence. Some of them already dead or reduced to a garbage gutter, while others dying a little each and everyday. Wikipedia gives the statistics of 17 lakes presently as compared to 51 in 1985.
We all know about the infamous Bellandur lake which forms an important part of the drainage system in Bengaluru. It is so toxic and polluted that foams are seen rising from it and the wastes catch fire. Similar is the plight of several other lakes in Bengaluru.
Environmentalists have pondered upon the water scarcity in Bangalore and went ahead to declare that half of Bangalore might need to be evacuated in 10 years. What is gonna happen to this booming IT industry of ours. What is gonna happen to all those kids who are taking birth in these LAKE Side apartments. What is gonna happen to all those college kids leaving college with the starry eyed dream of landing an IT job in this IT hub of India.
Bangalore is calling out in silence to be saved. It is time for action not procrastination. The government need to listen to the screaming flora and fauna in the city. People need to listen to them too. And most important is to join hands. If we want to save this thriving IT hub of the country. If we want the generation that follows to have a job and home, it is high time to join hands and act. Let us begin with our lakes.
