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Restoration of Urban Water Commons: Navigating Social-Ecological Fault Lines

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DOI: 10.3368/er.39.1-2.120

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 Restoration of Urban Water Commons: Navigating
Social-Ecological Fault Lines and Inequities

Amrita Sen, Hita Unnikrishnan, Harini Nagendra

Ecological Restoration, Volume 39, Numbers 1&2, March/June 2021, pp.

120-129 (Article)

Published by University of Wisconsin Press

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/793665

[ Access provided at 2 Jun 2021 19:11 GMT with no institutional affiliation ]

 CASE STUDY

Restoration of Urban Water Commons:

Navigating Social-Ecological Fault Lines
and Inequities
Amrita Sen, Hita Unnikrishnan and Harini Nagendra

ABSTRACT
The networked tank/lake system of Bengaluru has been created by human intervention, with a documented history as
far back as the 9th century C.E. The construction and maintenance of the tanks was overseen by local chieftains, and
supported by local communities, further managed by caste-based and gender-based systems of manual labor. With urban
expansion, the lakes lost their importance as the primary sources of water, leading to large scale degradation. Land-use
transformations impacted the socio-ecological commons landscape, exacerbating marginalization in nature-dependent
communities such as grazers and fishers due to loss of livelihoods. State initiatives coupled with community interventions
helped in revival of some lakes in the past decade, though others remain severely degraded. Privileged and underprivi-
leged caste groups describe a very different picture of the past, demonstrating rather divergent perspectives on the way
in which urbanization and lake revival has impacted their lives. Based on a case study of selected lakes in Bengaluru, we
establish how social inclusions and exclusions are manifested through decision making on lake management. We also
seek to understand how these hierarchies have changed in response to urbanization, with aspirations towards a rhetoric
of restoration, but a focus on urban greening and recreational aesthetics in practice. The impacts of urban transition and
lake revival are shaped by differing power relationships manifested within the caste hierarchy.
Keywords: commons, community, lake management, urban India

Restoration Recap •
• Inclusive ecological restoration practices in urban India • Discriminatory urbanization and urban ecological revival
can comprehensively benefit communities and ecosys- without sufficient attention to restoration can manifest in
tems, if they go beyond rhetoric to practice. wide-ranging social and ecological consequences.
• Functioning urban ecosystems provided a range of inter-
connected social, physical, and ecological benefits for
different socio-economic classes in a city.

We envision that this lake when restored will be a place project will thus be of use to the entire community and they
that is both beautiful and will foster a sense of community will thus be motivated to maintain the landscape. (Inter-
in the neighbourhood. It will be a place where birds thrive view with Bengaluru urban municipality, translated from
and where people can identify with. It will have fountains, the original Kannada by the researchers)
lights, and a beautiful themed garden with mostly native
plants. There will also be a place for children to play. The
S tatements such as these are reflective of dominant
paradigms surrounding the restoration of urban water
commons, especially in cities of the Global South. They also
This open access article is distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-
NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0) reveal biases that shape the iniquitous manner in which
and is freely available online at: http://er.uwpress.org restoration or repurposing of urban water commons is con-
ducted in many cities of that region. Most prominent focus
Ecological Restoration Vol. 39, Nos. 1–2, 2021 is on enhancing aesthetic and recreational benefits that
ISSN 1522-4740 E-ISSN 1543-4079 may be obtained from water as a “resource”, with a limited
©2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
understanding of aligned social considerations—ways in

120 •  March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2

which a mere aestheticization might undermine provision- recognition of local knowledge and institutions, support-
ing services supporting specific marginal groups. In several ing landscape dependent livelihoods, and understanding
cases, a technical aestheticized focus on urban greening restoration processes that can recognize and accommodate
has undermined local community livelihoods and, in-turn, local values and needs should all be key strategies linked
long term sustainability goals of achieving equity and social to restoration (Fox and Cundill 2018).
justice (Fox and Cundill 2018). A prevalence of objectives Yet in practice, in many Indian cities the emphasis on
such as landscaping, creating fountains, and providing restoration remains on paper. Projects take on an approach
recreational play areas misses out on an imagination of of urban greening via landscape redesign, with a dominant
the lake as a place for provisioning and utilitarian needs goal of providing recreational opportunities for certain
of farmers, fishermen, or urban foragers. Related to this is civic groups, especially in upscale neighbourhoods. Our
the imagination of a middle class, relatively homogenous paper aims to advance an understanding of the gap between
urban community, possessing shared aspirations and inter- aspirations towards restoration, and the reality of such proj-
ests which can be motivated to coproduce or undertake ect designs on the ground in urban India. We describe how
stewardship of the resource. issues of inclusion and social and environmental justice
As idyllic as these visions are, urban communities in are omitted because of the lack of attention to the require-
the Global South are far more heterogeneous than these ments of socially and ecologically embedded approaches
narratives indicate. Restoration and management of urban to restoration. Drawing on extensive long-term research
water commons in these spaces require engagement with around networked lake commons of the south Indian city
these ideas of complexity, disparity, inequity, and power of Bangalore, we demonstrate prominent fault-lines on
imbalance. However, what passes as ecological restoration how social and cultural inequities have continued into
projects in official documents is fundamentally oriented the present day, shaping discourses of lake restoration and
towards the creation of enclosed, upper-class spaces, over- on-ground practices of urban greening, posing serious
riding concerns over collective justice. In this paper, we implications for the balancing of ideas of social justice with
argue that ecological commons in cities can have profound aspirations of sustainable cities. Finally, we reflect upon
values for long-term human wellbeing of numerous com- ways in which restoration of urban water commons may
munities—specifically urban marginals, whose stakes and be more reflective of imperatives of ecology and equity.
interests need to be recognized while designing nature
restoration plans. But in most cases, provisioning services
Methodology and Field Areas
supporting communities are ignored and delegitimized
and many of these practices draw on culturally and insti- Our chosen methods involve a mix of exploratory review
tutionally embedded systems of social inequalities around and empirical fieldwork. For the review, we have relied
the management of commons. We provide a deep-dive on literature search, enabling us to pay attention to urban
into the networked lake commons of the south Indian city transformations, with a distinctive focus on Bengaluru
of Bangalore to demonstrate inequities, heterogeneities, as a city. This exploratory review has helped us capture
and contestations that have existed around lake spaces for structurally embedded elements of power and exclusion
centuries. We explain how many of these structured inequi- in varying degrees, which are constitutive of current lake
ties manifest themselves in contemporary environmental revival efforts and their role in entrenching expressions
thinking, ultimately organizing itself into elitist greening of informality upon urban peripheral communities. For
projects across cities, that are framed as restoration, yet the empirical part, we used semi structured and oral his-
largely ignoring social-cultural and ecological costs. tory interviews, conducted between 2013 and 2018 with
Ecological restoration is critical for increasing adaptive residents living around several lakes in Bangalore, coupled
capacities of cities by combating local pollution levels, with archival data on lake management in the past. The
carbon sequestration, climate regulation, along with pro- lakes that have been included for the purpose of this paper
visioning a range of cultural and non-monetary services are Sampangi and Dharmambudhi Lakes, for understand-
(Elmqvist et al. 2015, McDonald et al. 2016, Clarkson ing the patterns of “restoration” that these lakes have been
and Kirby 2016, Johnson and Handel 2019). Communi- subjected to over decades; and Sawle Kere and Bellandur
ties, despite being from different locations, can feature Lakes for understanding more recent challenges (Figure
prominently in urban biodiversity restoration, since human 1). Archival data had immense explanatory capacity for
values, wellbeing, culture and socio-economic activities shaping the findings of this research, since a reasonably
are integrally linked to nature around them (Standish et al. large amount of information could be collected from public
2013, Sen and Nagendra 2020a). As Gobster (2007) points records about temporal shifts in beliefs and practices asso-
out, human values should be considered key elements for ciated with management of the lakes as critical community
successful ecological restoration processes, considering commons. Qualitative interviews—primarily oral histo-
the role that they play in balancing nature conservation ries—helped in revisiting interesting historiographies and
and environmental equity. Community participation, collective remembrances from multiple actors, memories

March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2  • 121

 Figure 1: (inset) Map showing the city of Bengaluru as it is positioned within Karnataka, India; (main) Map show-
ing the four study sites: Sampangi lake (lost), Dharmambudhi lake (lost), Bellandur lake (extant), and Sawle Kere
(extant) as they are positioned within the partial jurisdictional boundary of the city’s nodal agency (BBMP).

of the lakes, and governing institutions and social con- One reason commonly cited for physical and social dis-
flicts. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were parities of this kind is the rapid usurpation of agricultur-
critical in understanding the challenges of access to lakes ally productive community lands in the peripheral rural
in contemporary cities. We have used a descriptive frame areas towards urban land-use purposes and technological
of analysis to capture and communicate diverse social infrastructures. Multinational franchises, high-rises and
dimensions of an inherently iniquitous process of urban supermarkets, exquisite shopping malls attracting well-off
lake revival, officially characterized as lake restoration. urban shoppers, fitness centres, multi-speciality clinics
and the like are the essentials of the urban elite, as well
as common facilitators of swift transformations towards
Networked Lakes, Fractured Communities:
world-class cities. However, much of the spectacular city
An Exploratory Framework
life and strategies of urban planning and development,
Indian urban areas and their core, subcentres, and periph- as de Certeau (1984: 93MC) pointed out, demonstrates a
eries have substantially expanded in the last couple of “simulacrum”, whereby everyday practices of the ordinary
decades, transforming much of the rural-agrarian hin- people are best examples of resistance to the established
terland landscapes into built spaces. Several studies have structures of power. The predominant agenda today of
pointed to the current crises as well as longstanding effects making cities “global” rests on cumulative capitalist capaci-
of urban transformations, as specifically affecting the fringe ties to reinforce power, control financial instruments and
population that was predominantly agrarian. According consolidate place-bound material and human resources
to Appadurai (2001: 25), such transformations have made (Sassen 2000). We find a similar process of recent urban
blatantly visible contradictions between “high concentra- greening efforts in cities being gradually integrated within
tions of wealth and even higher concentrations of poverty technocratic and profit-driven endeavours of capitalist
and disenfranchisement” in many megacities of India. growth processes, with an environmental ideology being

122 •  March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2

focused on aestheticizing nature through biophysical trans- however (unusually for a water scarce city) flourished in
formations—creation of manicured parks with exotic plan- the region since prehistoric times (Annaswamy 2003).
tations, gated green spaces, rooftop gardens and other built The propensity of the terrain to remain scarce of water
features (Kaika 2005, Gibas and Boumová 2019). None of was recognized by these early settlements resulting in the
these agendas address social-ecological associations and creation of an intricate, engineered system of water tanks,
rights to justice since they act to disenfranchise marginal connected by means of channels, and cascading across the
groups by severing critical provisioning environmental elevation gradient characteristic to the city (Unnikrishnan
resources (Baviskar 2018). et al. 2017). Seasonally replenished water in these lakes
Functional diversifications, formal legal and adminis- flowed from one lake into the other across the gradient,
trative systems and high-end technological developments creating a system by which water was circulated across
are dominant forces characterizing life in a global city. the landscape and made available for agrarian livelihoods.
Everyday lives in megacities are essentially impersonal, Together with open wells that tapped into shallow aquifers
where erstwhile communal bonds tend to get weakened recharged by the lake, a measure of water security for the
and replaced by transitory relationships. Classical socio- city was achieved, allowing a number of settlements to
logical thinkers, like Louis Wirth (1938), commonly asso- flourish (Nagendra 2016). This system of water supply
ciated urbanism of this sort as inexorable—a dismal way was in operation until the mid-nineteenth century when
of life, with large scale segmentation of human relations, the city began to receive piped water from other distant
anonymity and superficiality replacing personal relations sources (Unnikrishnan et al. 2020). In a sense therefore
and customary community-based institutions. Others have this act of engineering the waterscape enabled the creation
explored the expansive blanketed effects of urbanization of liveable spaces in formerly harsh terrain (Unnikrishnan
on fringe villages of a city—ways in which consumerism, and Nagendra 2020).
market and occupational diversifications are replacing Given its importance in enabling livelihoods and daily
traditional economy and life-worlds in rural areas situated lifestyles, the constructed network of reservoirs was influ-
along urban borders (Rao 1970, Jaysawal and Saha 2014, enced deeply by social hierarchies as well as cultural prac-
Denis and Zerah 2017, Sen and Nagendra 2020b). In sum, tices, thereby influencing how the resource was managed
interfaces of urbanization on the lives of disadvantaged and appropriated (Mosse 1997). Even though this system
communities are complex and frequently disenfranchising. of interconnected lakes was reflective of deeper engage-
Urbanization experiences of former village communities ment with local ecologies, it built on and was sustained by
in Bengaluru has been discussed much on similar lines, social structures of deep inequity (Shah 2012). This ineq-
with urban sprawl and increase in population inducing tan- uity became visible when one scrutinizes the institutional
gible inequities in terms of access to land, basic infrastruc- and cultural traditions associated with lake management
ture and livelihoods (Thippaiah 2009, Nagendra 2016a, in Bangalore since precolonial times. Marginalized castes
Nagendra 2016b, Mundoli et al. 2015). Specific studies on speak about extreme inequities imposed by hierarchies
poverty in Bengaluru have demonstrated how governance and ostracisms, that shaped the use and management of
processes systemically disenfranchised the poor in the city, lake commons. These hierarchies impacted livelihoods,
through demolition of low-income settlements, resettle- social interactions, and physical associations (Sen and
ment, and increase in land prices (Benjamin 2000). The Nagendra 2020b).
urban renewal of Bengaluru, driven by investments made An important role in the institutional management of
at the national and state level, which was propelled by the water supply by tanks was ascribed to village water men
drive to make the city “globally competitive” as an informa- (“neerganti”) (Shah 2003). They bore the responsibility of
tion technology hub, largely excluded the city’s marginals, measuring water levels within the reservoir and allocating
who continue to live with minimal infrastructure and basic sufficient water to agricultural fields by manning the sluice
amenities (Benjamin 2000, Srinivas 2002, Unnikrishnan gates responsible for controlling water outflow from the
and Nagendra 2018, Unnikrishnan et al. 2020). A number tanks (Gurakkal 1986, Shah 2003). As important as this
of studies have also pointed out the ecological impacts of role was towards sustaining the agrarian economy, the
rapid urbanization and the exploitation of urban ecological “neerganti” community belonged to a more marginal-
commons like lakes and rivers, in dislodging Bengaluru’s ized caste, and subsisted through receiving shares from
marginal populations (D’Souza and Nagendra 2011, Sud- the local harvests that they supported (Shah 2003). The
hira and Nagendra 2013, Unnikrishnan et al. 2016). construction of tanks was undertaken by a caste group, the
The city of Bangalore by virtue of its geographical posi- “Voddas” who often put in significant labor, made difficult
tion within a rain shadow and its conspicuous lack of a by the provision of only basic equipment such as crowbars,
major river is naturally prone to aridity (Sudhira et al. baskets, or rakes (Shah 2003). Once built however, local
2007). It has occupied a prominent position in southern elites from higher caste groups exerted control over the
India for several centuries beginning with the city’s formal waterscape, retaining power to allocate water and land to
founding in 1536 by a local chieftain. Settlements have people of their choice (Rice 1897). Local folk songs, passed

March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2  • 123

down through generations, reference the construction of a perpetuated new discourses of the sanitary city (Melosi
new tank—almost always describing the sacrifice of women 2008, Unnikrishnan, et al. 2020). These discourses estab-
and children to appease local deities (Shah 2012). It was lished the supremacy of western technologies (such as
believed that the sacrifice of women and newborns before closed, networked, and piped water supply systems) over
or during the construction of a reservoir would appease indigenous ones—the tanks. Ideas of racially segregating
the wrath of local deities, while at the same time ensuring populations for continued health and safety of the Brit-
plentiful supply of water and therefore bountiful harvests ish took firm root (Castán Broto 2019), resulting in the
from fields that were irrigated by the tank (Shah 2003). In establishment of two distinct and dually governed zones
a sense therefore, human sacrifice was also an opportunity within the city by 1881. The first zone was the anglicized
for local elites to exert their ownership over the resource Cantonment (governed entirely by the British) and the
through exploiting the cultural belief systems of the time. other was the native “Pete”, comprising of native agricul-
The practices of precolonial lake management were not tural and industrial hubs and governed by the native rulers
therefore, as is sometimes claimed, those of a unified com- of Mysore (Unnikrishnan et al. 2016). Power was largely
munity working together in harmony to manage their local concentrated in British hands. Every effort was made to
resource systems. Instead, they are reflective of a deeply keep activities within these zones as separate as possible.
fractured, iniquitous community, that sustained itself over Water constituted a contested resource claimed by inhabit-
time through internalized social and cultural hierarches, ants of both the zones, creating inequities because of the
while yet demonstrating mastery of local ecologies that power hierarchies between different groups of residents.
enabled the creation of water security within the region. An informative example of contestations over water
As we demonstrate below, these hierarchies have been is the transformation of the centrally located Sampangi
carried into modern times, perpetuating some forms of lake into the city’s prominent sports stadium. Located
inequity while creating other newer forms of marginaliza- on the border of the City and the Cantonment, the lake
tion, influencing and in turn influenced by the design and was important to sustain the lifestyles and livelihoods of
maintenance of these systems. several groups of people who lived around it. Water from
the lake was (until the advent of piped water) used to meet
domestic water supply in the vicinity. The lake supported
Historical and Social-Ecological
a substantial population of native horticulturists, farmers,
Fault Lines
weavers, and fishermen (Unnikrishnan et al. 2016). The
The city of Bangalore came under British colonial rule establishment of the British Cantonment and the arrival of
after the defeat of the local ruler Tipu Sultan in CE 1799 piped water into the region influenced changes in dominant
(Sudhira et al. 2007). This change in governance brought perceptions surrounding the utility of the resource. While
with it gradual, yet dramatic transformations in ideolo- the lake continued to be an important enabler of water
gies and practices surrounding urban water management. dependent livelihoods, it began to be seen as a nuisance to
Bangalore, by virtue of its high elevation and mild weather the lakeside bungalows and educational institutions that
was particularly attractive for European settlers. Large had by then been established around the lake. Petitions
numbers of Europeans began to call the city their home, were filed by British residents asking the Government to
and this further attracted native migrants from other parts reduce the level of water in the lake to prevent flooding.
of the country in search of labor and better living condi- Contrarily, native horticulturalists filed petitions asking
tions. This increased population also meant an increased for increased water supply from the lake to fulfil their
demand for essential resources such as water, exerting needs for irrigational water. Valued as a recreational area,
unprecedented pressure upon the existing system of net- restrictions began to be imposed upon digging wells and
worked tanks which characterized water supply to the city. brick manufacture, and on livelihoods such as fishing that
This increased demand for water later coincided with the were deemed unsightly (Unnikrishnan et al. 2016). Part of
advent of electricity, making possible alternative solutions the lake was drained to make way for a polo ground. As
to meet the new demand—solutions that involved pumping one of our interviewees, the son of a former horticulturist
water across increasingly long distances directly into the recalled,
homes of people. The new networked piped infrastructure
began to render the older tank system obsolete, which then In the early 1900s, we were here. We were growing flowers
led to their degradation and conversion into other built around the lake. There were a lot of fishermen too. All of
structures over time (Unnikrishnan and Nagendra 2020). a sudden there were restrictions to our movement. British
Changes in physical infrastructure were concomitant guards in coloured uniform began patrolling the banks of
with changing ideas and discourses around water supply. the lake—they would punish anyone who fished or grazed
European experiences with epidemics like plague and cattle in the lake. People were using the lake to walk in the
cholera, both in their homeland as well as in the vari- evenings, as a recreational spot. We had no place there.
ous colonies they established, created, reproduced, and

124 •  March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2

A fixation with aesthetics and recreation continued to gain This story is not unique to Sampangi lake. The trans-
prominence, prompting the migration of native popula- formation of several water bodies in the city tell similar
tions out of the area or forcing them to take up alternate tales of exclusion and vulnerability. The transformation of
occupations. The lake began to be disused and polluted, Dharmambudhi lake into Bengaluru’s central bus station
eventually being drained to give way to an open field and too is a testimony of how dominant colonial discourses
playground, where a sports stadium was eventually con- of sanitation and technological superiority rendered the
structed by 1945. Inequities were manifested through the lake separate from urban life, creating opportunity to
denial of legitimacy to livelihood-based dependencies built repurpose and transform it into another form of public
around the social-ecological system in ways that changed infrastructure. This at the cost of impacting local liveli-
the lifestyles of local populations dramatically. As a local hoods and lifestyles that were dependent upon the lake
community male elder told us, and whose visions of resource utility were different, but
which held less sway over planning discourses of the
As the lake began to be used more by these uniformed time (Unnikrishnan and Nagendra 2020). Such urban
guards, life became increasingly difficult for us. We found redesign, without accounting for the magnitude of social
it very hard to cultivate our crops and so sold the land effects that they entail, does not merely lead to inequities,
at throwaway prices. My family then started the business but has collateral consequences on the sustainability of
of delivering firewood to local houses—but it was a very cities. In the next section of this paper, we show how these
time intensive and laborious process. We would wake up inequities have translated into lake revival, management
at 3:00 am, go to the market, buy several logs of wood and and planning to the present day.
bring it back home. Once home, all of us brothers would
chop the logs into smaller sizes, create bundles of them and
Deepening Fault Lines in
then sell it to our neighbours. Even then we were short of
Contemporary Times
money. We then moved to real estate. We built more floors
above our house and put them up for rent—that is our Colonial ideas of prioritizing recreation and aesthetics
family’s income now. It gives us money, but I long to see did not die out with the creation of the modern indepen-
the days when we did not have to depend on a shop to give dent state of India. Rather, these ideas have continued to
us our food—we would grow our own food and that has dominate discourses of lake rejuvenation, further creating
been lost to us. newer forms of inequity. Beginning in the 1980s, fuelled
by concerns over the state of the city’s rapidly declining
At the same time, internal caste dynamics continue to be tanks as well as their widespread pollution, several state
reproduced in subtle ways around the landscape. Former and community led activities have aimed at restoring
“neergantis” refuse to be identified as such stating that the or rejuvenating the city’s water bodies. Several lakes in
only thing the identity brings with it is more marginaliza- Bengaluru have now been converted into fenced public
tion. In the words of one of our male interviewees, spaces, with jogging trails, manicured gardens, outdoor
gyms, benches to sit, and children’s play areas. Many of
In those days being a “neerganti” was our occupation. We these projects have unfortunately been driven by engineers
were proud of it because it gave us our food. Yes, people and bureaucrats, with limited inputs from wealthy and
would treat us as untouchables, but we knew that without middle-class local residents, and little or no consideration
us there would be no fields, no food, and no tank. Today of the social-ecological heterogeneity that characterizes
what is there for us? Just the fact that we belong to a lower community dependence, especially that of low-income
caste. I don’t want to be associated with that stigma and communities, on lakes. For instance, the project plans
so I do not identify myself as a “neerganti” in most public for most lakes include a sizeable budget for expensive
interactions. ornamental gardens landscaped with exotic flowering
species, rather than native, fruit-bearing trees and edible
The landless may have been especially affected by social- greens that are widely used by most local residents. Jog-
ecological transformations in the landscape, as is often ging and walking paths take over a sizeable chunk of the
seen. As one of our male interviewees added, in a presumed waterspread area of lakes. Grazing, subsistence fishing,
reference to bonded labor of the past, and other traditionally permitted activities such as the
collection of dry wood for fuel, flowers for home worship,
The community that lived here consisted of poor working and plant parts for medicinal use, are all forbidden as is
classes who were owned by a few rich people. These rich swimming in the lake, a pleasure once enjoyed by local
people lived elsewhere. When the tank was filled up, the youth (Nagendra 2016b).
workers were sold to new owners and they migrated to A notable state led example was the experiment with
other areas. privatization of lakes in the year 2004—the state, consider-
ing itself unable to manage its lakes, began to lease them

March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2  • 125

out to private entities. These organizations were allowed They have put a big fence around the lake. Do you know
to commercialize activities on the lake. “Restoration” of why? To keep people like us out. We don’t look like you
such lakes, a term used by the municipality (Lakes Depart- people, we don’t dress like you all. They don’t like us because
ment) and the Indian government (NITI AYOG 2015) have of that. We come in dirty, torn clothes to cut some grass to
involved the creation of landscaped parks, water fountains, feed our cows, but that big fence keeps us out. Why should
boating and water sports, cafes, eateries, and night lights, we care about the lake when they don’t want us there? We
along with a levy of entry charges. In reality these were have our lives; we are happy with it.
not restoration projects from an ecological point of view,
but can be characterized as lake revival projects. These Only contract fishing is now permitted by the Depart-
privatized lakes supported a lesser diversity of social- ment of Minor Irrigations, a local nodal agency. How-
ecological uses as compared to their neighbouring public ever, traditionally, local fishers played an integral role in
counterparts (Unnikrishnan et al. 2015). Livelihood based maintaining the lake. While fishing, they de-weeded the
activities were almost entirely missing from privatized lake and during the monsoon, they blocked the sewage
lakes, except in those circumstances where users made inlets manually to prevent wastewater inflow. Since they
alternative arrangements for entry, using gaps in fences practiced traditional fishing, they used nets which caught
and the like to enter and use the water body. bigger fish, leaving smaller fish to breed. While they
Enclosing water commons by means of fences is not an fished, they also removed the non-biodegradable wastes
activity restricted to state or privatized attempts at lake like plastics from the lake during and after the monsoon.
revival. In recent years, Bangalore has seen the rise of Overall, they managed the quality of the water of the lake
several community collectives who have worked in col- since they were dependent on fishing. They also kept a
laboration with local bureaucracies to restore and rejuve- watch on changes in water color/quality and helped in
nate its lakes. In most of these cases, the effort is focused management of the lake.
on increasing aesthetic and recreational value for urban Restorative activities around these lakes have however
middle-class residents (Unnikrishnan 2018). Accordingly, not paid attention to these lived cultural and social con-
such lakes are fenced off, restrictions imposed on when the nections that communities have built around the lake
lake may be accessed and for what purposes it may be used system. At the same time, since many of these pre-existing
for. Not surprisingly, these restrictions tend to keep out socio cultural systems of water governance have been
the most vulnerable populations such as livestock owners, deeply iniquitous, changes in the way urban commons
urban foragers, and commercial washer-folk (“dhobies”). have been managed following lake rejuvenation have
Local communities who used to depend on the water body had some liberating effect, freeing many residents from
now feel alienated and no longer consider themselves a oppressive gender and caste-based restrictions by virtue
part of the ‘community’ surrounding the lake. According of their influence on people’s livelihoods and lifestyles
to one of them, (Sen and Nagendra 2020b). An elderly Muslim woman
who has lived in Bellandur village since she got married
We have lost not only the lake but the soil! We miss the said that she has been living here for 65 years since it was
soil! Do you know how the soil heals your body? You have a large agricultural village nourished by the largest lake
to walk barefoot for that. You all are urbanized people, so in Bengaluru, the Bellandur Lake. They had their own
you won’t believe! agricultural land where they grew flowers, millets, paddy,
and vegetables. The lake water was so clean that it could
In Sowle Kere Lake, grazers from the nearby villages be consumed and was also used for household purposes
describe restrictions in access to the lake after the lake reju- like washing clothes and bathing cows. Lakes were used to
venation was completed. One of them, who owns six cattle, irrigate adjacent agricultural fields. They have now stopped
talks of how the lake was earlier managed by communities farming since the lake became polluted with sewage and
from local villages. He mentioned how communities like industrial runoff. In last six years, she and her family earn
grazers could be ideal stewards—staying in the lake area income from renting their land to two small restaurants.
in the day allows keeping a close eye on the lake. They can She talks about the breakdown of social discriminations
alert if a fire breaks out within the lake boundaries, clean between communities, with Bellandur transforming into
the lake of its outgrowth while collecting fodder, check if a high-end urban neighborhood.
sewage is coming inside the lake, check if the water color
or quality changes, and collect reeds to keep the lake clean. We were otherwise close. But certain discriminations were
Grazing also provides free manure for the lake. How- explicit. High caste Hindus would send us a lot of food
ever, there are now multiple attempts to ban grazing. The during the time of their festivals. But they never ate our
municipality stated that cattle would destroy the fences and food. It was only some of the lower castes, whose work
eat the plants. In the words of one of our interviewees, an was disposal of corpses and other menial jobs in the vil-
80-year-old female cattle owner, lage, who would eat food from us. Now that Bellandur has

126 •  March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2

 changed, such things have reduced. People are now more transformations in different ways. For the lower caste
open-minded. groups, urbanization has primarily afforded emancipation
from rigid caste-based hierarchies and the associated ritu-
She feels that caste discrimination has decreased after alistic practices of purity, pollution, and social exclusion.
their neighbourhood transformed into a high-end urban The situated cultural norms and social structure, as most
area, with an upgraded road network, shopping centres, of them point out, were not communal and egalitarian,
offices and malls. The money acquired by the rent or sale but characterized by deeply entrenched exploitations and
of land has liberated a lot of lower caste groups from previ- inequity. Much of the pre-modern social technologies as
ous oppression. well, as pointed out by Shah (2012: 525), strongly implied
Another farmer also from Bellandur village said that the “reproduction of cultural politics and power rela-
during the local New Year festival of “Ugadi”, village fairs tions”. Many of the narratives from grazers, fishers and
and theatre plays were held where people from other vil- agriculturalists who now have fixed incomes from jobs
lages came and participated in large numbers; but caste in organized sectors in the city and who live in affluent
restrictions prevailed. His community was not permitted neighbourhoods, taken comprehensively, allow little scope
to drink water in a high caste household, or enter into to frame any linear critique of urbanization within these
temples. He feels that the urbanization of Bengaluru has communities.
facilitated the upward mobility of oppressed castes. Per- However, there is no denying that the overall process
sonally, he is content with Bengaluru becoming urbanized. of lake revival in Bengaluru has largely followed ideas of
As he mentions, there are now shops; all household items gentrification, leading to an emphasis on recreational and
are now very easily available. Everyone has a good house aesthetic uses of lakes, while specifically excluding uses
to stay. People had to sell their farmlands to real estate such as grazing, fishing, swimming and the collection of
developers, but that has made them better off than what plant material that was largely conducted by marginal-
they were before. Although he mentions that there were ized communities who resided around these lakes. While
plenty of green cover in the villages earlier and the water some agriculturalists who owned land have profited from
and air were clean, he feels that life is comfortable now. renting or selling their land, it is also likely that landless
families may have lost access to resources and been forced
Previously we had to go to the city market to get anything to leave. We captured one account of those working as
like clothes or even some daily items. But now everything bonded labor around Sampangi kere who were especially
is available right here, as you can see. affected, being severely and unjustly treated both before,
and after lake revival. However, because our oral history
A woman from Kaikondrahalli village, an agricultural narratives are restricted to those families that continue to
laborer from an oppressed caste group, said, live around these lakes, we do not have information on
how widespread this effect would have been.
Definitely our village looks good now, good to see beauti- This trend of gentrification that we have described both
ful tall houses and bungalows. Earlier we had agricultural historically and in the present day within Bengaluru is not
fields in the spaces where now there are these houses. It’s unique to this city alone. Several peri-urban commons in
strange! Someone grows the food and someone else eats it. and around India, especially in cities such as Gurgaon,
Earlier we used to eat the food that we grew. People now Hyderabad, and Delhi (Vij and Narain 2016) have also
come from elsewhere and live here in our village. But it’s followed similar trajectories. Indeed, the trend of dissoci-
good. There are good schools now, there is a lot of devel- ating local populations from local water infrastructures is
opment: there are huge shopping malls. Now there are big characteristic of urban development trajectories found in
buildings, which protects residents from rains and flood. other European cities such as Lyons, Munich, and Brussels
Before one had to go to Delhi and Hyderabad (bigger cities) (Winiwarter et al. 2016). This form of urban development
to see such buildings, but now they are here only—in our has several problems. Gentrification, and enclosures of
own village. It’s good. urban commons can potentially reduce pollution and
increase aesthetic and recreational value. On the other
hand, this form of governance greatly reduces the capacity
Conclusions: Challenges Ahead
of lakes to provide provisioning and cultural ecosystem
Urbanization has often been linked to threats of dislodging services, as urban commons now become accessible only to
lower-income settlements of marginalized communities, a particular group of people, who tend to view the resource
leading to multiple forms of exclusion (Jaitman 2015). through similarly myopic visions.
However, some of the observations from the long-settled There are some lakes however, that have experimented
native communities of Bengaluru reveal other perspectives. with ways of being more inclusive. For example, the revival
Different caste groups who inhabited the erstwhile lake of Kaikondrahalli lake in south Bangalore and Jakkur
landscapes of the city speak about experiences of urban lake in north Bangalore have both been undertaken with

March and June 2021 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION 39:1–2  • 127

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