“Engineers before initiating any major development work on lakes should keep in mind the biological background of those lakes,” suggested U.N. Ravikumar, retired Director, Centre for Appropriate Rural Technology (CART).

He was delivering a lecture on ‘Conservation of Urban Lakes’ at Institution of  Engineers-India (IEI) on JLB Road here yesterday.

Ravikumar appealed engineers not to attend large scale development of lakes and other water bodies during drought.

He observed that Lingambudi Lake, Dalvoy Lake, Kukkarahalli Lake and Karanji Lake in city have been substantially developed over the last 20 years.

He regretted that encroachment of lakes had deprived copious inflow of water to those lakes devastating the environs.

He opined that engineers should first identify the locations in a lake where silt accumulation was maximum and development work should be initiated by separating the sensitive Eco-Zone.

Continuing, Ravikumar said that the so called environmentalists should not repeatedly insist on development of lakes without basic knowledge of protection of lakes. He lauded the efforts of District Administration and Mysore University in keeping Kukkarahalli Lake alive and eco-friendly despite severe drought in Cauvery basin.

Similarly, he appreciated the efforts of a few environmentalists in thwarting the attempt of the State Government 20 years ago to develop Ring Road utilising a portion of  Lingambudi Lake.

Going further, Ravikumar appreciated the idea of feeding filter backwash water from Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) to Kukkarahalli lake to replenish the water body.

He said that the Government had formed a few rules and guidelines in 2015 for developing lakes scientifically.

He insisted that the officials concerned should abide by the guidelines to develop lakes and added that a provision exists to challenge any indiscriminate development wasting tax-payers’ money, in the Court.

On the occasion, he presented a slide-show on ways and means of developing lakes.

Immediate Past Chairman of IEI Mysuru Centre C.N. Babu, Secretary B.V. Ravindranath and Programme Co-ordinator S.G. Vombatkere were present on the occasion.