Wednesday, 17th May 2023, our third day at the Biome Environmental Trust began on a Traveller which started its trip from Vidyaranyapura at 6 in the morning, gradually filling itself with interns from various locations in Bengaluru and finally leaving for Kolar District by 8 am. We had a quintessential South Indian breakfast on the way to our first destination Laxmisagar Lake, 50 kms from Bengaluru.
Our ride for the day
We stopped by the KC Valley Out Point near the Laxmisagar Lake, where Nikita from the Biome Environmental Trust, who accompanied us for the trip, educated us on the hydrology of the region, and the KC Valley Project. The Laxmisagar lake is the first of a series of around 140 cascading lakes in the Kolar region, which is receiving 440 MLD of secondary treated wastewater from 7 STPs in Bengaluru. Bengaluru’s consumption of water is around 2000 MLD, out of which 1700 MLD is disposed as wastewater. The average annual rainfall in Bengaluru is around 1000mm, which is higher than the surrounding areas. Less rainfall and increasing water demand of cities, have led to overexploitation of groundwater sources, ultimately leading to depletion of aquifers and drying out of surface water sources. Lakes in the Kolar region have been drought-prone for the past 20 years, where the rainfall for years 2009, 2010, 2015 have been below 700mm. The Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley Project was initiated in 2018 by Karnataka’s Minor Irrigation Department to provide relief to these drought-prone areas. This is one of the largest treated waste water transfer projects in India, and has been adopted as a pilot model by the Jal Sakti Ministry to be implemented in other parts of the country.
A view of the KC Valley Channel Out-Point
The replenished lakes provide ecological benefits, which could be observed from rich growth of floating water hyacinth and other plants around the lake, and spotting of birds like pelicans, kingfishers and swamphens. The lakes also evidently benefit the farmers as the land around the lake were all cropped with banana plantation, crops and herbs. The lakes are auctioned for fishing, giving employment to the locals and economic gains to the panchayat, which ultimately benefits the locals. The water in lakes percolates the soil, recharging the aquifers and increasing the water table. It took around 6 months for water to show up in openwells around the Laxmisagar lake. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which is a technical partner with the Minor Irrigation Department, continuously documents the water quality and ecology around the lake, and has observed a 5m rise in the water table of the region. The water from this series of lakes ultimately leads to a tributary of Cauvery River in Tamil Nadu. Nikita illuminated us on the fact that the lake ecosystem further treats the water through biological processes. To test the same, we collected two water samples - one from the lake inlet, and the other from the lake outlet. These samples will be lab-tested for Drinking Water BIS Standards 10500, to see if the water is fit for direct human consumption.
A view of the Laxmisagar Lake
Carrying the water samples, we moved to our next destination - a small village Honnsetthalli, to meet S. Vishwanath Sir, Suma Ma’am, Avinash Sir from the Biome Environmental Trust and the people from an organisation called Grama Vikasa, who work with community building, and educating the people about their rights over land. The drive to the village was through a narrow road with agricultural fields on one side and a large lake on the other, with rocky hillocks in the backdrop, serving as catchment areas for the lake. The driver parked the Traveller inside a compound where they had made all the arrangements for the meeting. The location had a small block and a tin shed under which we sat and enjoyed the freshly prepared tomato juice served by them, surrounded by trees and small flowering plants. The ambience was very peaceful, and we could only hear the rustling of leaves, chirping of birds and the noise of monkeys hanging over the trees and the shed. We could also observe waste composting bins laid around, full of dry leaves and other organic waste.
A group photo with the Grama Vikasa members
While interacting with Mr. Rao from Grama Vikasa, we got to know that only about 50% of the residents own land in the village and the lakes are owned and managed by the Gram Panchayat. The Panchayat can auction the lake either to a village or to a private entity for pisciculture. But generally, it is given to the private entity for better economic gains, on certain conditions like first priority of fish produce must be given to the village residents, or sale of fishes to the village residents at a nominal price. He also shared an incident where they had opposed and prevented the auctioning of the adjacent hillock to a private entity for stone quarrying. He then enlightened us on various benefits of a typical tank rehabilitation project.
Further, Vishwanath Sir joined the conversation where we discussed strategies to improve the local economy of the village community, specially the landless villagers. Everyone contributed with their thoughts like promoting village tourism, branding and marketing of local crafts, food processing and value addition, vocational training of the community people, and shared cropping.
Girija from Grama Vikasa, shared her experiences, where she elaborated on the challenges faced while working with the village community. The most common challenges mentioned by her were money-mindedness of people leading to outmigration, internal disparity among the community people and lack of proper social infrastructure.
Vishwanath Sir explaining the Lake Irrigation System
After the discussion, Vishwanath Sir took us on a short walk towards the nearby lake where he showed us the various components of a lake-based irrigation system including the tank, the catchment area, sluice gate to control the outlet of water, the command area which is the area serviced by the irrigation system, and the distribution channel network which carries the water from the tank to the agricultural fields. We returned from the walk, had lunch which was prepared by the community women, and got back into the Traveller to proceed to the next destination.
Our lunch
We reached a nearby village, Pichhaguntlahalli, to meet people from Arohana Grameenabhivruddi Samsthe, and agricultural workers from the village, who were manually digging water distribution channels from the adjoining lake under the harsh sun. Some of us tried helping them, and found the task really difficult. The working women performed a folk song for us which they sing for good rain and the wellbeing of the community. We also looked at the lake and found it full of ipomoea (rubber plant), which is a weed having 2-feet deep roots, impossible to be picked manually, and is removed mechanically. Asha from Arohana, briefed us about their NGO which works on rural development of agriculture and farmers. Biome Environmental Trust ensures that the workers are paid higher than the standard wages. The workers are paid a daily wage of Rs.400 and an additional allowance of Rs.50 for food.
Village women digging water distribution channels
There was an open well next to the mulberry plantation with turbid water, which might seem impure to most people, but was claimed fit for agricultural use by the workers. We also visited a small house, where a group of community women were engaged in silk rearing activities, one of whom explained to us about the process in brief. We then moved towards our last destination for the day to witness an ongoing project of mechanical desilting of a lake.
Silk rearing in Pichhaguntlahalli
We reached the Doddakere Lake at Vadagur located on the Bengaluru-Tirupati Highway. We were welcomed with coconut water by the members of Panchayat, who intimated us about the ongoing project. The lake being created for groundwater recharge, has a small catchment area and would mostly be rain-fed. They talked about the initial struggles faced by them, including financial shortcomings and lack of community participation. Initially, there were no takers for the silt excavated from the lake. With continuous efforts of Grama Vikasa, they managed to persuade one of the community members who took 9000 truckloads of the excavated silt at Rs.30 per truckload and laid it over their agricultural land. This significantly improved the fertility and production of his land, and also raised the level of the low-lying land. This encouraged other villagers to do the same, as a result of which 36000 truckloads of silt had been excavated to date. And with additional support from the Rotary Club of Indiranagar, and other organisations, the project is financially stable. Due to the strategic location of their village, the Panchayat members have envisioned a market along the highway to sell their agricultural produce. Post this brief, we walked along the lake bund to the excavated site and observed continuous excavation, and a fleet of trucks carrying the silt. We collected two soil samples - one of the topsoil, and the other of the desilted lake bed for lab testing, and walked back to the parked Traveller.
Mechanical desilting at the Doddakere Lake
As the Traveller started moving towards the city, Nikita helped us recall and summarise the entire day. And within no time, we noticed heavy traffic and realised that we had reached the city. The 14 hours long trip ended with each of us getting off, bidding goodbyes, as the Traveller took us through the city.
- Abhinav Anand & Viral Chauhan,
Interns at Biome Environmental Trust (Summer 2023)
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