Day-Long Cleaning Drive and Tree Planting at Horamavu Agara Kere

On Saturday, 16-July-2016, Horamavu Parisara Abhivruddhi Samiti (HPAS) organised an intensive day-long lake cleaning and beautification event at the Horamavu Agara Kere. More than 100 people participated in the event. In addition to local residents, students from Mount Carmel College’s Eco Club enthusiastically joined in picking up litter strewn around the lake, segregating waste, removing weeds from the lake’s fence, levelling the ground where needed, planting tree saplings, and making the place aesthetically pleasing enough to dissuade people from littering and dirtying the place in future.

This 50-acre lake in north-east Bengaluru has been a prime location for local residents to toss their unsegregated garbage in plastic bags, for the local BBMP contractors to transfer garbage from tempos into trash compactor trucks, and for people eager to encroach upon lake land by dumping construction debris. In addition, raw, untreated sewage flowing into the lake via two rajakaluves creates a perfect cocktail for disease causing vectors and for the unbearable stench that hangs in the air.

Dr. Ted K. Dass, HPAS managing trustee, said on the occasion that “The government must take very seriously the implementation of orders and rulings by various courts, including the recent orders on Bengaluru’s lakes by the National Green Tribunal. Further, the newly formed KLCDA must be well funded and provided with adequate staff to undertake lake rejuvenation activities on a war footing. People will fall in line when consequences for damaging or destroying lakes and their catchment areas are severe and predictable.”