From left: Deepak R, Kushal Kumar, Deepak D L, Surekha, Chaitra Puthran and Naganagouda Patil

With more than 200 years of history shaping the life of an entire community and eco-system, Jakkur Lake has been dubbed as a ‘birds’ paradise’. In fact, it can be called the North Star of Bangalore.

Located about 15 km from the city’s centre, it is closer to Yelahanka with a township, Jakkur, to its west and a village, Sampigehalli, to its east. Currently undergoing a transformation and restructuring from a natural lake to an artificial one, the water body is in the throes of a larger scheme of things called ‘City Beautification’ and ‘Lake Development Project’, conducted by Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) as part of the urban development project of Bruhat Bengaluru.

Surekha, an artist, decided to record the happenings in and around the lake through photographs and videos after she heard of the Lake Development Authority (LDA) project. “I have pictures of the lake dating back more than 15 years (her husband is from Jakkur). But in 2009, when I heard of the project, I started interviewing the locals, BDA officials, contractors and, apart from taking pictures, shot extensive video footage of the lake,” says Surekha.
‘Jakkur-Lake’ Project
Surekha’s artistic documentation of the history of the lake is construed through photographic images, video interviews and archives, collecting oral recordings of anecdotes by local dwellers (farmers/activists), environmentalists, ornithologists as well as BDA contractors. Surekha’s fervent hope is that the lake regains its healthy environment along with its flora and fauna.

She says, “This project has been a fantastic learning process for me. In the beginning, I didn’t know much about it, but today I am deeply involved with its progress. Contractors or BDA officials call me when there is something interesting taking place. They alerted me when they had drained the water. I have walked on the lake bed. The feelings are too deep to express. I have seen the authorities taking painstaking steps to develop the lake properly by taking inputs from environmentalists and wildlife experts. I have seen dead fish recovered from the lake. I have seen birds going to other lakes nearby because this one was not ready. I now know how lakes are formed and how there is a chain formation of other lakes nearby. This project is not a commitment for a year or two, but for a lifetime. The lake and its impact on the community are too intense to be taken lightly. In fact, without a water body or a lake, there is no life in the vicinity.”

Surekha tied up with five young artistes who were not the ‘typical artistes but had an ecological connection’. The artists — a snake rescuer, a farmer-artiste, a new media artiste, an aquarium hobbyist and a ‘sparrow man’ — have given an interesting perspective to an urban bane.
SNAKE RESCUER
Chaitra Puthran was once afraid of snakes, but is now called to rescue snakes. In fact, her complaint is that there are fewer calls now than before. “I just hope that people rescue snakes rather than kill them. Except cobras, there is no mercy shown to any other snakes, however harmless they are,” she says. The first snake that she rescued was a rat snake. Since then, she has done intense research on snakes. “Without knowledge of snakes you can’t handle a snake,” she says. “My contribution to the project will be to present the factors causing changes in the snake’s population with respect to the changing face of the lake. There will be a handwritten diary, drawings, illustrations and pictures of snakes. I will be glad to answer any queries about snakes during the course of the exhibition.”
NEW MEDIA ARTISTE
Deepak D L has worked on natural sounds in and around the lake. A keen interest in the environment led to him pairing up with Surekha for the project. He says, “I have collected sound footage from in and around the lake and manipulated it to make a new sound. I have archived the project in sound and made an audio library in a digital format of all sounds related to the project.”
AQUARIUM JUNKIE
In addition to the environment and birds, Deepak R is passionate about fishes and aquariums. A childhood passion for creating ecosystems for fish has led him to create micro-ecosystems with aquatic plants. The largest tank he has created measures 7’ X 4’ X 2’. According to him, after the lake is filled, the ecosystem will get better than before as ‘plenty of work and thought has gone into it’. “I am going to talk to the local authorities and research the types of local fish that can be released into the lake,” he says. He wishes that people won’t release species like the Jalebi fish, Catfish or the American Turtle Red Ear Slider into lakes as these upset the local ecosystem because they breed fast and consume a lot of food.
“I became involved with the project after Surekha told me about the dead fish during the dewatering process. My role is to recreate an ecosystem similar, but not identical to Jakkur lake’s. The tank that I have come up with, which is about 2’ X 2’ X 15”, has an island as well.”

LOVE FOR SPARROWS
Kushal Kumar has been working on the migratory tendencies of sparrows keeping the background of the lake in mind. He finds sparrows in his native Doddaballapur but very few in Bangalore, which has more wireless towers and pollution. “Along with these two factors, global warming has caused sparrows to migrate elsewhere. From about a hundred birds four years ago, the population has halved,” he says. For the lake project, he will display a gigantic 3’ X 4′ nest with a huge mobile phone that will have a monitor to play a seven-minute video on sparrows. “I have used the mobile phone as a symbol to show its impact on the birds,” he says.
FARMER-CUM-ARTISTE
Naganagouda Patil is not from Jakkur, which is why his land is intact. “I have seen the land around the lake. It is very fertile and good for cultivation,” he says. “In my childhood, I used a soft thermocol-like material sourced from the maize stem to make farm equipment similar to what my father and uncles used. We used to play with them. Today, traditional hand-made equipment are vanishing just like the land around the lake. For this project, I have created farm equipment that are slowly becoming obsolete using the same material that I used as a child.”

The Lake – Past, Present and Future
PAST: Until recently, the lake was surrounded by a lush green belt. The livelihood of the villagers and the farming community were dependent on the lake. “A 90-year-old farmer told me how, in the olden days, a girl’s family would give their daughter in marriage to a boy only if his village had a lake,” says Surekha. Birds flocked to the lake. From October to April, migratory birds came from Australia and European countries. A thriving ecosystem made Jakkur lake a paradise for both birds and its watchers. The community around the lake used the water for domestic purposes and farming.

PRESENT: The announcement of the Akravathy Layout changed the lives of an entire community with sites being formed at the edge of the lake. Farmers protested at the poor compensation and took the government to court. With their farmland now under dispute and no other means of support, farmers have now become potters and bricklayers. The natural access to the lake has been fenced. This is to keep encroachers at bay, but is a hindrance to the local community too. During the dewatering process, the entire lake looked like a battlefield with trucks and other vehicles marking the lake from within. The desilting process was monitored by the BDA. Nagarajappa, a farmer-activist from Jakkur, rued the loss of livelihood for a generation of farmers. BDA is engaged in transformation rather than preservation. A sewage treatment plant has been built to treat water coming from Yelahanka before it is released into the lake. Wetlands have been created.

FUTURE: It is a wait-and-watch process. Three years after the resurrection of the lake began, only one-tenth of the water has returned. The local and migratory birds are punctual in their arrival though ornithologist Harish R Bhat says that 30 per cent of the birds have left. But, Deepak R says, “I am sure that in about three years, we will see a better ecosystem with plenty of fish and birds in the area.”
EXHIBITION
Lake Tales: Focusing the urban rural margins – Jakkur lake
Dates: June 5-15
Venue: Bar1, 69/3, Mission Road