If one goes through the narrow lanes from near Jagruteshwar Mandir in Jagnath Budhwari, one reaches in a lane in Tandapeth on the left of which there lies Naik Talao and on the right there is Lendi Talao. Try asking any youngster about Dobe Talao and a question mark would appear on his face. An old man would confidently point at some different place, while some people keep mum.

 

 

One would go to Naik Talao and Lendi Talao, and then come back on the lane near Tandapeth, confused! Then somebody comes out of his shop and would say with confidence, pointing at a small nullah, that flows through the locality, “This is Dobe Talao.” Now there is a dense locality, one would not dare to say once there was any lake. Callous civic authorities and of course people joined hands and grabbed the lakebed and drowned the lake. The purpose of civic authorities was clear as in the Development Plan (DP) of Nagpur this Dobe Talao was not featured at all that shows how much ‘significance’ is given to the lake. Once upon a time there was a lake called Dobe Talao.

 

 

The area where this small pool of water called the Dobe talao was situated is presently demarcated as a residential zone in the DP. In the year 2008, the note written by Nagpur Municipal Corporation itself says, the place had been completely encroached upon and most of it is completely dumped upon to facilitate construction of new structures. In the same year according to NMC record the lake was reduced to small pool that could not be termed as a lake. Now the locality has been set up on the lakebed and nobody is ready to speak truth with the fear that they might have to vacate the place, if reality comes to fore. The mud houses now are transformed into cement homes. In support of people NMC too has brought its school in the locality and sealed the death of lake.

 

 

Encroachments on the lake area have come up due to the process of continual dumping. Dobe lake was relatively smaller than Naik and Lendi lakes. Both Dobe and Lendi used to exist because of Naik Talao. (Fortunately Naik Talao has a proper border so it has some future. Civic authorities too have decided to rejuvenate the lakes and Naik Talao was given top priority along with Futala). Gradually the relationship of Dobe Talao with Naik and Lendi came to an end. Like Lendi, Dobe Talao too did not have any fixed boundary that was one of the reasons for its death. Experts say, one should not get surprised if Lendi Talao too treads on the path of Dobe Talao and then a question mark would appear on the faces of the next generation when one would ask where was the Lendi Talao?