Our Lake, Our Oyster

My friends and I are a privileged lot. Not only did we get to bring Puttenahalli Lake in South Bengaluru back to life, but also to make it into a rich ecosystem.

 

In 2010, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) gave us a desilted and dry 10 acre basin with the embankment of about 3 acres made from the muck that they had removed from the lake bed. In a span of only six to seven years the lake had rippling water and a rich canopy of trees arched over the walkway. Pied kingfishers hovered in the air before diving for fish. Turtles sunned themselves on the logs we had placed as bird perches in the water. Butterflies flitted from flower to flower and dragonflies gave way to walkers. 

All these are ample rewards in themselves but no less was the journey – exciting, frustrating, challenging and some obstacles seemingly impossible to overcome. Indeed, our diary is packed with memorable moments that are as much about the evolution of the lake as of us, trustees, learning and growing with it.

The first of these has to be our tree plantation drive in July 2010. Only the month before, Prasanna Vynatheya, Arathi Manay, O P Ramaswamy and I, all living in the vicinity of the lake had got together and registered the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT). With the BBMP supplying 125 tree saplings, red soil, manure and a group of labourers, our work was reduced to getting a VIP to inaugurate the drive and residents from the neighbourhood to come and plant.

Well before our elected representative to the legislative assembly, the MLA, arrived, a platoon of his supporters landed. Wearing clean white shirts with outsized ribbon badges pinned, they waited at a distance talking among themselves till the cars swung in and the MLA got out. They cheered him with loud shouts and walked en masse to where we were waiting. Prasanna’s height enabled him to draw the attention of the MLA and he introduced me as the Chairperson of the lake trust. I handed our chief guest a shovel. His supporters cheered. He planted a Mahogany tree sapling, went to the next pit to plant another. The cheers rose again. He was about to plant another when he spotted me lost behind his men and insisted that I plant it with him. He left soon thereafter and the entire retinue vanished as well. The residents, adults and children who had been waiting patiently all this while took over. Some people planted together with their children, a few others in the memory of a loved one, many for the pure pleasure of planting a sapling.

By noon everybody had worked off their enthusiasm and dispersed. Children from the slum were returning from school. We got them to plant as well.

It had been a long day. The labourers who had helped everyone from morning, planted the remaining ones and left.  When I returned that evening, all the young trees were in place, each supported with a stake. The lone Indian date palm (Phoenix sylvestris, Eechala mara in Kannada) on the island now had lots of company – if only the new ones survive. We had assumed responsibility for this and had sought donations from those who had planted the saplings. The amount we raised wasn’t much but it would be enough to pay the salaries of a gardener and a security guard.

We had our work cut out. Sitting on the kerb stone in the viewing deck, I was overwhelmed more with the magnitude of what we as a team and community had done. I had planted only the Mahogany with the MLA, but I felt as elated as if I had planted all the 125 myself.

I never could keep my emotions to myself. At that moment I simply had to share my happiness with someone, anyone. Except for one or two people returning home to the slum, the place was deserted. The sun was beginning to set, turning the little pools of water into gold in the dusk. My husband would soon start worrying about my whereabouts.  I got up reluctantly. Ah! There was a well-dressed girl in her twenties walking up and down, waiting, she said, for her friend.

“You know,” I said, opening my heart to the stranger. “We planted trees here today. Many, many trees….”

“Oh, nice,” she replied with a vague smile. Looking over my shoulder, her face brightened and she walked quickly towards her friend.

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