Chronicle of a fight for Hesaraghatta grasslands

When I moved to Hesaraghatta in 2001, the reservoir was an everyday sight for me. In 2004 after successive drought years, the lake dried up and water tables started to plummet. When I was wondering what could be done to mitigate this, I saw a few banners in Hesaraghatta village that announced an effort to revive the lake. I joined the villagers. We recced the area and decided to open up a completely silted-up western channel called Dasenahalli Khane. The channel thus revived brings water to the reservoir to date.

In 2002, Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) asked ISRO to study the reasons behind reduced inflow into the Tippegondanahalli reservoir. Based on the recommendations of the study, the government issued an order in 2003, dividing the catchment area of the reservoir into four zones, demarcating buffer zones and limiting development activities.

In 2005, several citizen groups along the river basin had begun desilting the canals and stopping polluting industries. We all got together to form Arkavathy Kumudvathy River Rejuvenation Trust to work on a larger scale and engage with the government.

Finally, in 2012, the Karnataka government floated a Rs 23 crore tender to open up the canals and de-silt the ponds along the basins of the twin rivers. However, the money was spent but the work remained incomplete.

Meanwhile, following petitions by many land owners, the government cut down the buffer zone of the Arkavathy and Kumudvathy rivers by half in 2019, thereby diluting its own order of 2003.

Film City and other threats

The catchment of Hesaraghatta reservoir and Arkavathy at Hesaraghatta is about 5,000 acres, and the Karnataka government owns most of it. About 347 acres of it is grassland—the last remaining piece of grassland around Bengaluru. The government had leased it to Mysore Film Development Corporation (MFDC) in 1972 to build a film city.

However, it didn’t materialise. MFDC, renamed Karnataka Film Development Corporation (KFDC) later, was closed down in the early 2000s. The land was temporarily vested with Kanteerava studios which started renting it out for Kannada film shootings. Locals had to clean up the mess after every shooting, while it also left the ecosystem damaged.

By 2012, the Kannada film industry started clamouring for the film city again. The government called for tenders seeking a detailed project report on developing the area as a film city.

So, in December 2012, our Trust filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court of Karnataka in order to save this land. It went on for three years. The government then gave an undertaking that they would protect the land till the Cabinet decided on its fate. The grassland was given back to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services, which manages it now.

However, the threat to the grassland and scrub jungle will never cease. It was film city earlier, then a cattle theme park. More of them will be floated in future. The moment any such project comes up, allied commercial activities will follow. Open land is always a sight for real estate interests.

Hesaraghatta is already highly urbanised, with layouts mushrooming in surrounding villages. Bangalore Surrounding Roads project of Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) has destroyed thousands of trees in the Dobbaspet-Rajanukunte stretch, just 6 km north of Hesaraghatta. The government is building apartments under the Rajiv Gandhi Urban Housing scheme in a prime catchment area of Hesaraghatta reservoir without caring for water supply and sewage treatment. Over the next few years, this area will see more urbanisation and an influx of people.

Need for conservation reserve tag

Sometime in 2012, we started seeing the entire catchment as a unique habitat that needed to be protected from ‘development’. I, in collaboration with conservationist Ramki Srinivasan, biologist K S Sheshadri and Ornithologist M B Krishna, drafted a detailed proposal to declare 5,000 acres of grassland including the lake bed as a ‘conservation reserve’ under section 36A of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. We submitted it to Karnataka Forest Department in December 2013.

The proposed 5,000-acre Greater Hesaraghatta conservation reserve includes a 347-acre grassland, 1,000-acre scrub jungle, 1500 acre lake bed and the rest of the land is where the department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services conducts its research, training activities and farming.

The forest department surveyed the land and fixed the boundaries of the proposed reserve. Meanwhile, in 2011, with little regard for the ecosystem a natural grassland can form, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) planted about lakh saplings in 200 acres of prime grassland.

A biodiversity survey commissioned by the Karnataka biodiversity board in July 2013 found 133 species of birds, many mammals, butterflies and millions of insects. Some of the birds, mammals and insects found in the area are on the verge of extinction or critically endangered. This report also highlighted the destruction of the natural grassland ecosystem by BDA’s tree-planting activity in which most of the saplings didn’t survive.

Smooth-coated otter, a vulnerable animal as per IUCN listing, seen in Hesaraghatta reservoir area. Credit: Ronit Urs

Essential for water security

The conservation reserve tag needs the approval of the State Wildlife Board. The proposal came up before the Board in January 2021. The minutes of the meeting chaired by then chief minister B S Yediyurappa note that Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath objected to the proposal stating that declaring the area as a conservation reserve would result in a paucity of government land for the “developmental activities that are required for a city like Bangalore”.

He also cited the forest department’s interruption of road development and power line works inside this area in 2020, which “directly and indirectly disturbs the public of the surrounding villages”, following which the proposal was binned.

Two PILs were filed challenging this decision. On July 31, the Karnataka High Court quashed the Board's decision and asked them to reconsider the proposal. The Board is set to meet on September 5 to decide on this.

If declared as a conservation reserve, this will be the second largest green space for Bengaluru after Bannerghatta national park. The Hesaraghatta area is among the few commons left in the state and the city. The government must take a foresighted decision to save the natural grassland habitat of Hessarghatta for posterity by notifying it as a conservation reserve. This will safeguard Karnataka’s precious natural heritage and protect the water catchments of Arkavathy, which is essential for water security in the area and to the city of Bengaluru in the long run.

(The author is a photographer, educator and environmentalist who is at the forefront of the campaign to get the conservation reserve tag for the Hesaraghatta area)