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Save the Dalvoy Lake, Mysuru before it is too late

In recent times we are witnessing severe catastrophic effects of climate change all over the world. In India, almost all the regions are getting affected by severe climate events such as floods, droughts, water shortage etc. Each year, mega cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi witness mega floods during monsoon, primarily because of unchecked and rampant destruction of green covers, lakes and other natural features in the name of urbanization

The quaint beautiful city of Mysuru has so far been untouched by the urbanization mayhem, but sadly its ugly face is showing up.  One such recent incident is the destruction of green cover around Dalvoy Lake, located at the southern part of the heritage city, beside Ooty road.

 

 

Dalvoy lake is a major wetland in Mysore, comprising the lake and its catchment wetland of around 50 hectares. The lake acts as an important water reservoir preventing flood and maintaining the ground water table, besides supporting a number of plant, animal and bird species. In a way, it is like a “green-lung” for Mysuru.

 

 

Apathy and irresponsible human activities are slowly killing this beautiful water body. The total area of Dalvoy lake is decreased from 48.56 Ha (1998) to 47.34 (2006) to 47.28 (2012) due to land filling/dumping. Multiple encroachment of lake bed has contributed to low storage level (Akshata, N. Shankar B, 2021)

 

 

Unfortunately, the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) has recently started developing a place for the garages for cars, jeeps, buses, trucks, spare parts shops, tyre shops, tinkering shops, painting shops, automobile electrical works shops, upholstery shops and other shops related to LMVs and HMVs at the Mandakalli Survey No. 64 near Bandipalya, as reported in the Star of Mysore on Feb 17, 2023. 

 

 

The most regrettable fact is that in 2022, the Hon Prime Minister announced the Amrit Sarovar Mission, under which this waterbody was supposed to be rejuvenated and restored. MUDA also supposedly allocated 9 Crores for lake rejuvenation to complete the work by August 15, 2023. This besides the fact that as a signatory of the Ramsar Convention, the government of India is obliged to conserve and protect wetlands and several policies and statutes have been made in this effect since then.  

If an automobile workshop is built on the catchment area of the lake, it will not only destroy its ecosystem, but also will irreversibly damage the lake with pollutants and debris, which will eventually contaminate the ground water table, affecting the small farmers downstream. It may also cause flash floods on the Mysuru-Nanjangud highway, as the lake will no longer be able to store rain water coming from the storm drains.

The concerned citizens of Mysore are deeply worried at this blatant destruction of the beautiful natural resources of the city for commercial motives.

Instead of building an automobile workshop, the authorities, if wanted to commercialize the lakefront, could have converted the catchment area into an “Urban Forest '', under the “Nagar Van '' initiative of the MoEFC. This would not only attract tourists, as the Ooty road is a major interstate highway, but also have improved Mysore’s green city image and possibly could have been an income generation source for the local villagers.

Our Plea
As concerned and responsible citizen of India and Mysuru, we plead to MUDA, Karnataka Tank Conservation and Development Authority and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA)) to kindly take urgent cognizance of the peril and degradation of the Dalvoy Lake to save it from its slow and sure death. Specifically, our humble pleas are;

1. Declare the immediate catchment areas of the Dalvoy Lake as protected buffer zone and stop all kinds of commercial and building activities
2. Implement the rejuvenation and restoration under Amrit Sarovar Mission and complete the work (and fund thereof), that were taken up earlier by MUDA and other agencies.
3. Instead of developing automobile workshops, develop the area around the lake as Urban Forest, under the Nagar Van initiative of MoEFC
4. Take appropriate measure to prevent leeching of industrial effluents and domestic sewage to Dalvoy Lake and take appropriate measures to improve the water quality and desilt the lake
5. Create appropriate measures such as fencing to stop people dump garbage, dead animals, cut trees etc.  

We fervently plead to the concerned agencies and environmentalists to please take note of this impending destruction of this beautiful wetland and please stop this environmental destruction before it is too late.