A retired professor and team revived the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and helped return almost 120+ species of birds to the lake

The government announced the lake in 2015 as the first Urban Bird Conservation Reserve in Bengaluru

In September 2015 the 37-acre Puttenahalli Lake in Bengaluru was declared a Bird Conservation Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, a first for the city.

When most lakes have dried up or even been blocked with waste, the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake of Bengaluru City is a distinct and iconic lake revived through citizens’ efforts.

The government announced the lake in 2015 as the only Bird Conservation Reserve in Bengaluru. Biodiversity experts have discovered 49 bird species breeding in the lake. During the breeding season, over 7,000 birds can be sighted there.

Now through the voluntary support by experts from the Indian Institute of Science and GKVK along with complete support from the Karnataka Forest Department and the local governing bodies, bird experts, and residents around the Puttenahalli (Yelahanka) Bird Reserve, the rejuvenation efforts have shown positive outcomes in attracting birds from various countries. In the last few years, the return of 120+ species of birds and several species of other lifeforms to the lake have been noted, recording the increase in the biodiversity.

It is to be noted that the lake is an abode for endangered and migratory bird species from the Northern Himalayas and Siberia, many of which are listed under the threatened category of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Physicist K.S Sangunni, a retired professor from the Indian Institute of Science and the chairperson of the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake & Bird Conservation Trust, five years after his retirement, together with his team ran around government offices to ensure Yelahanka’s Puttenahalli Lake get revive and restore.

In a candid conversation with me, Sangunni reminisced, “I heard about this lake through my friends in IISc and GKVK in 1990. When we saw the lake becoming a sewage pool and a decline in the bird population, we decided to take up the issue of rejuvenating, bearing in mind the biodiversity part of it.”

He joined together with like-minded people from various walks of life including academicians, professionals, and organic and conventional farming experts, and formed the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake and Bird Conservation Trust.

Sangunni informed, “For over 10 years of continuous struggle by our trust, with the help of various Citizen Organizations around Yelahanka & experts from institutions like Indian Institute of Science and GKVK, we succeeded in getting the Government to declare Puttenahalli Lake, Yelahanka as the first Bird Conservation Reserve in Bangalore city.

While answering how the lake rejuvenation effort was initiated, Sangunni said, “Many birds visited this lake in the 1980s. It had islands in the middle and was hidden from human activity. In the early 1990s when I first visited the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Lake, the beauty of the lake was mesmerizing. Pristine clear water that we could drink from, birds flocking everywhere. Slowly, sewage flowed in and by the year 2010, its water was black.”

He further said, “The year 2000 onwards, the quantum of sewage increased due to industries, the airport, and the growth in residential activities. Also, there is a sewage treatment plant next to the lake and all the sewage from Yelahanka’s 5th phase reaches this plant.

The government decided to discard this channelized sewage to the lake through a manhole. Then by 2010, the lake was a stinking body of dirty water, because of all the sewage that was being routed to the lake. Fewer and fewer birds stopped by the lake and it became a spot that no one wanted to even look at.”

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board managed to construct a manhole in the middle of the lake.

Unfortunately, instead of laying new pipelines by removing the old line, a shorter route was taken through the lake bed to the plant. This left all the sewage in the lake.

With the group’s efforts, the manhole was moved to the edge of the lake and connected to the plant.

Sangunni said that the technical help was provided by IISc and with the support of the Karnataka Forest Department, the lake was restored and designed in a way where it could handle sewage that was bound to enter the lake.

Sangunni said that the technical help was The trust uses the Yelahanka Puttenahalli Bird Conservation Reserve as a Hub for Education & Research.

The group conducts many programs at the lake where students from various schools and colleges participate to study the Flora and Fauna located within.

Also, the members of the trust focus to create a shared sense of environmental consciousness, connectedness, and an action-oriented approach towards environmental conservation initiatives among different community segments – by fostering a feeling of ownership of the lake by the residents.

The group has created a program called ‘Be a Citizen Scientist’ for college students and school children by conducting a training program with a focus on key aspects of Environmental Education, viz Biodiversity Education, engaging people in freshwater research, and monitoring of ecosystem services at the lake.

In the end, Sangunni stated, “This year we initiated a project to identify and bring back birds that once were abundantly found nesting at our lake, but are sparingly seen now. Our vision is to create a model lake ecosystem that can be replicated across the globe, building a network of healthy lake systems within urban spaces. Since the inception of the trust, we have been working closely with the forest department, helping them move forward to achieve this goal.”