Ornitho-Arboreal Park Around Bellandur Lake!

It's no secret that Bellandur Lake has been a garbage-filled hotbed of mosquitoes and carcinogenic foam. Of late, however, citizen activists and organizations have spurred the authorities to begin change. For instance, encroachments from the buffer zone of the lake have been removed and the sewage diversion channel to Varthur lake is almost complete. The drying and desilting of the lake, moreover, is in full swing. Fences and CCTV cameras still need to be tackled of course, but I think we can all agree that this is a good start.

This update deals with another amazing initiative of creating an ornitho-arboreal (ornitho - bird, arboreal - tree) park around the lake, which is being spearheaded by the Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) and the BDA. The plan is to plant a total of 6000 trees near the banks of Bellandur Lake. We've all heard the adage that "Trees are the lungs of a city", and this couldn't be further from the truth. Aside from all it does for our environment though, a pleasing site like a park would make the occasional litterbug think twice before acting.

On Sunday, 10th November, a few hundred citizens–young and old– loosened soil, layed manure, and planted a number of saplings, all of which were native species that had air-purifying properties. As of today, 400 trees have been planted, and many more are to be planted in the next few weeks.

If you couldn't make it for the tree-planting drive, don't worry. There are efforts to plan a PLOG(jogging and picking up litter) to clear plastic from the Bellandur Lake banks so stay tuned if you want to get involved. We will also be interviewing the Lake Marshalls soon.