Lesson to learn from Bengaluru’s encroachment history

On July 26, 2005, Mumbai experienced unprecedented and the most dreadful rain of 944 mm in just 24 hours. The financial capital came to a halt. Flood water levels rose to submerge even the first floors of several buildings. It cut off rail and road connectivity. People were forced to spend the night stranded in cars or risk venturing through the rising water. Over a thousand people died on that day. Thousands were subjected to untold miseries. Over a lakh residential and commercial buildings and about 30,000 vehicles lay damaged. The disaster was attributed to Mumbai’s drainage infrastructure unable to withstand the runoff water volume. It resulted in the failure of its massive sewer system. Drains were found blocked. Mumbai’s rivers overflowed as discharge exceeded capacity.

A flooded Bengaluru may have been spared the  horror that Mumbai faced but has all the ingredients in place for it to happen on a scale far worse than that. Most components are man-made. Greed and corruption rule the roost. It benefits the real estate sharks who bend and break the rules in collusion with officials to encroach lake beds and stormwater drains to build high-class residential complexes, some units costing up to `13 crore. These encroachments obstruct runoff water, causing floods.

Apparently indifferent to all this, there is demand among the ultra-rich for these luxury villas and complexes. But they fail to realise its impact, which was ingloriously unveiled on Sunday night to not only heap miseries on themselves but also on the entire city and its reputation. Despite Mumbai’s example, Bengaluru failed to learn crucial lessons. It failed to learn from its own experiences when the city flooded every time it rained heavily in the past. Encroachments continued unabated. Now, Bengaluru needs to be hoisted as an example not to be emulated by civic authorities in other urban centres across India.

Respective authorities need to plan satellite towns in the vicinity of a city once it reaches the urban expansion limit. Bifurcation or trifurcation of the local civic body needs to be considered once this limit is crossed, as has Bengaluru. Most of all, town/city planners need to understand that playing with nature only leads to the latter striking back, which could be deadlier than we know.