Rachenahalli – Containment of a Kere – A Visual Essay

Rohan D’Souza

Introduction

The lakes of Bangalore, as they are more popularly known, are very really tanks which are

part of an intricate man made system which took centuries to develop. This system displayed

man’s ingenuity at tapping rainwater in a place where there was no river. The tanks or to use

the more appropriate local term, kere, are a series of water overflows guided and reconfigured

into a chain of interconnected water bodies. These interfaced with each other through

wetlands and canals or rajakaluves allowing for a controlled and guided descent of rainwater

down the three valleys in Bangalore. Through this, one of the older rainwater harvesting

systems was put into practice.

A socio-economic system developed around

these keres which utilised the different parts

of the kere and merged social systems with

maintenance of these water bodies. The

water from the kere itself was used for

various purposes such as household needs,

irrigation, washing clothes and cattle.

Among the economic activities that

subsisted around the keres were fishing and

agriculture. The latter primarily happened in

the ‘wetlands’ downstream of the kere. A

bund was built to give birth to the kere so

that flowing streams of water were stopped and a water body developed around that. The

wetlands downstream of the bund benefitted from the overflow. This happened through sluice

mechanisms built into the bund. These helped

regulate the flow of water into the wetlands. The

canals or rajakaluves captured the overflows from

the ends of the bunds and transported the water to

the next kere in the chain of keres and so on. They

also helped channel water into the wetlands for

irrigation. The wetlands were primarily used to

grow water intensive crops such as rice or

sugarcane in some cases. The keres and associated

land such as the wetlands also nurtured a range of flora and fauna, ranging from a wide

variety of birds to aquatic creatures.

A community management system developed around these keres which involved various

communities to perform specific functions in

maintaining the keres. This included the

‘Neergunti’ community which maintained the

rajakaluves. Other communities were

responsible for de-silting the kere; still others

were involved in maintaining the bunds. This

was of course juxtaposed over the existing caste

systems in each of the villages where the keres

were located. An Inam system which rewarded

maintenance tasks with the grant of land also

Rajakaluve

Overflow

Sluice mechanism

existed. Who was granted what type of land; productive and fertile wetlands or relatively

infertile dry lands, also to some extent depended on one’s location in the caste hierarchy.

As Bangalore urbanised, two factors started kicking in which rang a death knell to this

complex tank system. One was the demand for land in a quickly sprawling and populating

city and the other was the corresponding increased demand for potable water. The latter was

met to some extent by tapping of water sources

such as the Cauvery River, located over 100

kilometres from Bangalore, at high costs of

transportation (pumping). As both these factors

started playing out gradually from the late 1970s

onwards, when Bangalore started receiving

Cauvery water, and in a more accelerated manner

from the 1990s onwards when the Information

Technology boom happened, keres started

shrinking in size or disappearing altogether to be

replaced by bus stands, stadiums, layouts,

commercial complexes. The connecting system of

Kere – Wetlands/Rajakaluve – Kere started being

replaced by Kere - Built up land – Kere. Thus the interconnectedness of the keres started

diminishing and the ‘containment’ of keres became the focus. This was accompanied by the

increased dumping of mostly untreated sewerage and industrial effluents into the water

bodies, polluting them and also converting them from seasonal water bodies into perennial

ones.

This containment was largely done by the

various civic agencies such as Bangalore

City Corporation (now the BBMP), the

municipal corporation, Bangalore

Development Authority (BDA), the land use

zoning authority, Lake Development

Authority (LDA), entrusted with the

development and maintenance of the keres.

This containment went hand in hand with a

repositioning of these keres. What were

once socio-economic-ecological systems

with a well-defined community

management system now began being

converted to mostly social, primarily recreation/entertainment focused systems, catering to

newer user groups. Thus the keres of Bangalore started being converted into lakes. The Forest

Department which was involved in maintenance of some of the keres for sometime from the

1980s to early 2000s were also responsible to some extent in the change of this discourse.

The new label, lake, was here to stay!

After that introduction, which is based on several years of research that I have done involving

several keres, I will attempt to present the structural transformation of keres visually. For this,

I will focus on one particular kere, Rachenahalli located in north Bangalore.

Buildings and debris near a

kere

Sewage and industrial effluents

in a rajakaluve of a kere

Rachenahalli kere is located in Thanisandara ward of the BBMP and is 148 acres in size. It

is located in the Hebbal Valley and is part of the Yellamallappa Chetty lake series.

Rachenahalli kere was 'developed' by the BDA at a cost of 19 crores

I have taken photos of the kere and wetlands at four different periods - May 2009, December

2009, April 2010 and May 2014. By presenting visuals of the different parts of the kere in

these four different periods, corresponding to when the BDA developed the kere, I will

attempt to draw your attention to the structural containment of this kere.

In May 2009, the kere was still a kere with the linear bund visible.

Bund May 2009

The wetlands were also fairly clearly visible. Agriculture already ceased to be practised here.

The rajakaluve from the overflow located at the eastern end of the bund which carried the

water to the next kere in the chain of keres. In this case, the Kalkere kere.

Wetlands May 2009

Rajakaluve May 2009

In December 2009, BDA had already breached the bund and emptied the water body.

This gave me a chance to get into the tank bed and take pictures including of the sluice

mechanism from the tank bed side. This helped record an image of a system for posterity,

which was going to be demolished shortly as the bund was being reworked.

Bund breach

December 2009

Sluice Mechanism kere

side December 2009

On the wetland side of the bund, was the other part of the sluice mechanism through which

kere water entered and irrigated these lands.

The kere bed was mostly dry now apart from few pools of water. In this interim period,

several people and flora and fauna that depended on the kere were left stranded. The former

included people who washed clothes, bathed, fished and the latter included several aquatic

plants, animals and birds.

Sluice Mechanism wetlands

side December 2009

Kere bed view December 2009

The only people who seemed to benefit at this point of the kere re-engineering, apart from of

course the BDA, were those engaged in sand mining from the kere bed.

In April 2010, the redesign work was in full swing. That gave me a chance to document

much of the ongoing work including creation of a walking path around the kere. This of

course is in the tank bed, thus eating into the water spread

area.

Kere bed sand mining December 2009

Kere walking path construction April 2010

The diminishing of the water spread area can be clearly seen when contrasted with a similar

view of the kere from December 2009. The house which just about oversaw the water body

was now a walking path away from it.

The bund was reworked and widened.

Kere eastern shore view May 2009

Kere bund reworking April 2010

This resulted in a loss of structures from a former system such as the sluice mechanism. This

added to the containment of the overflowing nature of the kere system. The photo below

shows where one of the sluice mechanisms of the kere was located.

The bed of the kere by now had dried up completely causing further difficulty to those who

survived on it, namely locals dependent on it for washing needs, fishermen and flora and

fauna.

Location of former sluice mechanism April 2010

Dry tank bed April 2010

BDA put into practise what has been critically called its water bowl engineering, visible from

this sloping granite reinforced wall all around the kere. This was done by converting a linear

bund, which was located only downstream of the kere to a ring bund running all around the

kere.

Artificial islands were being created which are meant to be habitats for birds primarily.

However these eat into the water spread area of the kere and are also in a way containment of

birds by keeping them in that restricted area as opposed to them being able to treat the kere

and surrounding areas as their habitat.

Ring bund with sloping granite wall April 2010

Artificial island creation April 2010

The reworking of the bund was taking place which resulted in it becoming wide...

Wider than earlier...

Bund April 2010

Bund May 2009

The direction the work was heading in 2010 seemed that it will result in the kere becoming a

water bowl that collects water in a circular structure as opposed to a sloping bed with

differing depths. This is done with the help of a ring bund all around the water body. This

would replace a linear bund, where the role of the bund was to dam the stream of water and

manage the overflow. Stretches of kere-wetland-kere will get broken so that land is freed up

between and around the keres for development. Was all this just my speculation, assumption

or just plain paranoia?

To check this, I made yet another trip to the kere, this time in April 2014, by when the kere

development was over and the water body would have hopefully been filled. This is what I

discovered.

The bund was now circular and curled all around the kere.

View of kere 2014

The previous linear bund has now become a part of the new ring bund now and can’t be differentiated

from the rest of the bund. There were no signs of the sluice mechanisms which have been built over

and relegated to posterity by particular notions of development.

The rajakaluve now has been fenced, just like the rest of the kere.

Bund April 2014

Overflow and rajakaluve April 2014

The kere was now securely ‘bunded’and fenced all around. While some would argue that fencing

prevents encroachment, one could also say that fencing limits the water spread area of what are meant

to be water bodies whose boundaries fluctuate based on the amount of rainfall and season. This of

course has changed now with the perennial nature of the keres with sewage and other waste water

flowing into them through the year. Therefore a new fixity has come to their boundaries and thus the

need to fence them in?

Kere view from outside fence April 2014

Rajakaluve and Kere fences April 2014

A peek from the bund onto the wetlands showed that most part of the wetlands remained as they were

in 2009-2010 but many new buildings seemed to have come up and are closing in on the wetlands and

the kere.

As compared to 2009

A view of the western shore of the kere also shows growing number and density of structures. This

could mean a depletion of groundwater as well increased discharge of sewage into keres.

This one would say is inevitable in a growing city like Bangalore. True, but what are the implications

on traditional and useful social-ecological systems such as the kere system of Bangalore? Should they

be conserved, as far as possible, as what they were or should they be re-engineered into ‘lakes’ and

thus be contained? Should keres be ringed, fenced and converted into water bowls so that land around

them is freed for such real estate growth? This in turn disrupting ecological logic and leading to

flooding on the one hand and depletion of groundwater on the other as well as the loss of urban

biodiversity.

Can we not look at urban conservation more creatively and see the possibilities that such systems can

offer, such as that of urban agriculture in the wetlands? Is retention of the overflow system possible so

that there are stretches of water bodies linked to each other through open unbuilt land within a

concreted landscape, thus encouraging biodiversity and also helping water sustainability? The

possibilities of urban agriculture offer not just crops with lower food footprints but also livelihood

options. However, the tug of real estate and the monetary windfalls it offers in Bangalore can be hard

to resist, especially given that agriculture is increasing becoming unsustainable and unprofitable for

small land holders.

Is this model of development that is so much in vogue now across the country, the only way ahead?

Are centralised management systems of natural resources the best way to conserve and preserve

them? Can the social and the ecological coexist in a fast changing urban landscape in a manner which

benefits both?

Kere west shore view April 2014

Plenty of questions swirl in my head as I exit Rachenahalli.

Kere north gate April 2014