Sarjapur road lake banking on your support for its survival

BENGALURU: If you are a resident of Sarjapur Road, here's a poser for you: How much would you have to spend on fuel to drive to the nearest lung space if there was no Kaikondarahalli lake?

That money is all that Sarjapur Road residents are expected to donate to save the lake, the neighbourhood's only active community space that on average gets about 500 visitors a day. The sprawling lake that was rejuvenated back to health four years ago with active public participation faces a fund crunch for its upkeep.
Kaikondarahalli is one of three lakes along Sarjapur Road but the only one maintained well and among several that the city administration has handed over to local residents to maintain. The Mahadevapura Environment Protection and Development Trust, or MAPSAS, the not-for-profit maintaining Kaikondarahalli lake, is sending out mailers to raise Rs 18 lakh, the annual maintenance cost for the 48.23-acre lake. "The idea is to get Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000 from 10 apartment complexes," said Priya Ramasubban, founding trustee and an independent filmmaker.

The discomforting thought of Kaikondarahalli lake becoming another Agara or Bellandur lake prompted Vidya Gomathi to raise Rs 13,000 a month from her Divyasree Elan apartment. "To have a lake like this in our concrete neighbourhood is a blessing and we should ensure it doesn't end up like other lakes in the city," said Gomathi, a project manager with an IT firm.

Padma Srinivas, a runner with citybased Runner's High, convinced her fellow runners from Rainbow Residency to collectively donate Rs 7,000 monthly . "We have been using this lake every week. We cannot afford to lose this lake," she said.

From a cesspool a few years ago, the lake now has clean water flowing in, neat pathways, a wetland area and about 40 species of birds. Once the lake was ready in its new avatar, the BBMP asked Ramasubban and other residents in the neighbourhood to form a trust that can take up its maintenance. An agreement was signed, with global fundraising nonprofit United Way footing the maintenance bills. Its funding period is coming to an end.

"We either raise funds or reduce the quality of maintenance with whatever resources are available," said Rajesh Rao, an MAPSAS trustee and founder-CEO of gaming company Dhruva Interactive.