Crores spent, yet weeds choke Bellandur Lake

BENGALURU: A three-member commission appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has concluded that 60% of Bellandur Lake continues to be covered by hydrophytes, especially hyacinth, indicating that despite spending crores of rupees nothing much has changed a year on.
According to the data cited in the panel report, as of March 26, 2017, 219 hectares of the lake were covered in weeds. While this decreased to 132 hectares in January 2018, the commission said when it visited the lake in mid-April, 60% of the 366 hectares of lake area appeared to be covered with hydrophytes, indicating that the weed cover had regained its initial spread.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had last year engaged a private firm, Harvins Constructions Private Ltd, to clear the lake of weeds. Since then, the firm has cleared almost 20,000 tonnes of macrophytes.

“This 60% also includes grass, which is good for the lake, and we have left 200 acres of grass-covered water near the Ejipura side. We have escalated the pace of work, and only 50-60 acres of weeds remain. We hope to clear this within the next month-and-a-half,” said an executive from the company.

According to him, the company was given Rs 3.4 crore to clear 15,000 tonnes of hyacinth in the first phase. The contract was then extended to clear more area, as well as compost the weeds for Rs 10 crore. However, officials from the BDA said they would be paid Rs 6.5-Rs 7 crore for both phases.

Despite this, the commission, after observing the pace of de-weeding, was of the “unequivocal view that it could never be completed in near future. The reason was not only the slow pace of work, with only four machines at the site functioning at the time of inspection, but also the fact that growth of weeds in the lake is possibly at a much faster rate as compared to the rate at which it is being removed.”

While residents have routinely slammed the de-weeding process as an ‘eye-wash’, the fact that the weeds have regained their original spread despite crores of money being pumped in, indicates that there might be truth in the claims.

However, a senior officer from the BDA, the custodian of the lake, said all was not lost. “De-weeding was suggested by the expert committee as a short-term measure, which is why we took it up. In the first phase, we cleared more than 19,000 tonnes after which we were told to stop, as the remaining grass was said to be good for the lake’s ecology. Hyacinth grows very fast. Had we not removed even this much, one would have been unable to see any water,” he said.