...Till greed, mafiadom choked it

HOW GREEN WAS THE VALLEY...

- SHANKAR RAJ

As the IT city of Bengaluru is on the verge of becoming a 'zero water city', the blame is being put on two failed monsoons, unusually hot and early summer, climate change and global warming. But what is being swept underground deeper than the depleting groundwater - is it is essentially a man-made crisis full of greed, corruption and, above all, mismanagement.

PARCHED AND GREY

Researches have shown Bengaluru was once a bone-dry parched parcel of land bereft of greenery. But early settlers had ideas and a deep respect for nature. They systematically converted the barren land through some amazing planning and giftwrapped the cold and desolate place with a thick blanket of foliage and then cherry-topped it with a necklace of lakes.

WHEN NATURE CAME FIRST

Settlers created keres (lakes and large ponds) and irrigation tanks. They first created water bodies and then built villages around them. The kings of the Chola dynasty were very fond of constructing keres and called them ‘samudra' or 'sandra' meaning a large body of water. Even now, these areas have the word Sandra attached to the village names (now in the heart of Bengaluru)-ThippasanMallasandra, Singhasandra or Junnasandra.