The Famous Houdini lake: that was only for few hours in Bangalore.

Report By Saloni Singh | Bengaluru | Last Updated at Oct 13 2020

The locals who were living in the coast of Baswanapura where briming in joy as they saw the lake was flowing with water due to the rain that was encountered in Bengaluru in the last couple of days. However, their joy did not last long.
The very famous lake activist Balaji Raghotham said, ‘I was overloaded with joy as I saw the Baswanapura lake brimming with rain water because as this incident happened nearly a decade. After seeing this I immediately had a contact with residence who were living in the coast of the Lake and planned a Bagina which was a famous Gowri festival like the chief Minister does when the KRS is full.’ He also added ‘But with disgrace my joy turned into disappointment.’

As the locals were getting ready to celebrate the auspicious occasion of Baswanapura lake brimming with water. The water drained out as someone had forgotten to turn on the outlet valve

The locals noticed that four feet of water had drained of the lake spread across the 28 acres.
The residence suspected that it was due to the fault of contractors and labourers who had probably forgotten to block the concrete pipe which diverts the route of sewage water from storm drain.
Expressing startled over the exhaustion of water from the lake, Thangavelu, a resident of Swatantra Nagar said, ‘When the work was going on here no one actually investigated or inspected and also we were not allowed to suggest the civil engineer and provide him all slots of possible advice. It is sad to notice that that the concerned authorities provide all types of funds but do not actually bothers to inspect the quality.’

At the cost of 5 crores, the Houdini lake was provided for the rejuvenation. It was one of the most abandoned and dirtiest lake in the KR Puram assembly segments. The locals have been demanding for fencing along the border side of lake for many years but the authorities hardly listen to the demand.
The lake activist had planned for planting saplings on the lake bund but these saplings were destroyed by the slums or cattle.

However, it is not the first time such lakes have been facing the depletion by the BBMP lake engineer because as the similar incident took place at Doddabidarakallu and Vidyaranyapura lakes.

‘the concrete pipes are laid at the lower level to drain waste water. The engineers have to responsible to either block the pipe when it was rejuvenated. They should have been about the same.
Ravi the executive engineer and the chief engineer Mohan Krishna had been assigned the duty for taking care of the problems that had been occurring.