Fencing work at Yele Mallappa Shetty Lake in east Bengaluru has resumed with the Minor Irrigation Department seeking police protection, after farmers and residents of Hirandahalli opposed the survey and construction of the remaining boundary stretch.
In an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the department said chain-link fencing had been completed along 6.3 km of the lake’s 9.3-km perimeter. The remaining 3 km has not been secured because local farmers are demanding road access to their plots and to a nearby graveyard along the lake’s edge.
The department has sought an additional five months to complete the work. It has also approached the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate for assistance from the Revenue Department in resolving the dispute and facilitating the fencing and resurvey.
The fencing is part of compliance measures linked to an NGT order issued in 2022 over encroachments and other problems affecting the water body. The tribunal directed authorities to prevent the construction of additional jackwell pumps in the lake’s buffer zone, prohibit further road or public-utility construction on the lake, maintain adequate water flow beneath the bridge, and remove obstructions at the inlet and outlet.
The order also required the completion of underground drainage and sewage-treatment works, action against those discharging waste into the lake, removal of encroachments from the buffer zone and implementation of recommendations made by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.
State funds were allocated for protecting the lake and removing encroachments, including the chain-link fencing around its periphery. However, the remaining work now depends on establishing the lake’s boundaries through a resurvey and addressing competing claims over access to land and the graveyard.
On September 26, the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru East tahsildar, Assistant Director of Land Records and an Assistant Executive Engineer from the Minor Irrigation Department visited the lake. The tahsildar and land-records official were directed to coordinate with the police to resolve the dispute and enable the fencing work.
About a week before the report, Bengaluru East officials wrote to the Circle Inspector of Avalahalli police station seeking police protection and maintenance of law and order during the resurvey and fencing operation.
“ The fencing work began on October 5, and we have cleared a 450-metre stretch along the lake for fencing. To secure the remaining 3-km stretch, the Revenue Department will have to clear the encroachments. The department is surveying the lake, and the findings will provide greater clarity,” an official from the Minor Irrigation Department said.
Officials said residents were opposing the resurvey as well. The Revenue Department’s findings are expected to determine the lake’s boundary and guide the next phase of fencing and encroachment-related action.
