‘Planned’ land-grabbing drowns two water-bodies
   Date :17-Jun-2022

Planned’ land 
 
 
 
By Kartik Lokhande
AN OFFICIAL fraud has come to light. Nagpur city has lost two of its precious water-bodies in a span of 15 years, officially! The city fathers and bureaucrats have allowed these two water-bodies -- Sanjay Nagar Talao and Dobe Talao -- which existed in 2007, to vanish in 2022. These two water-bodies have not died, but have been killed out of a fraud perpetrated on the city’s interests. There is a reason to suspect that the sin has been committed systematically -- and therefore deliberately.
Factually, many other water-bodies in the city are under the evil eye of land-grabbers and people with suspect intentions. Not just these two lakes, but also many other lakes are under the threat of getting sunk in evil-doing of enemies of environment. Right at this current moment, the tiny lakes such as Lendi Talao, the Pandhrabodi (Ram Nagar) Talao, the Binaki Mangalwari Talao, the Police Line Takli Talao, the Naik Talao, Sakkardara Talao are under the threat of extinction. There also is an invasion of bigger lakes such as Telangkhedi (Futala) and Sonegaon Lakes. Environmental activists also suspect that the Gandhi Sagar lake, too, could be under a severe threat in a few more years, no matter political tall-talk to rejuvenate it.
But let us return to the two already extinct water-bodies at Sanjay Nagar and the Dobe Talao. Abhay Kolarkar, city-based activist, sought information from Public Health Engineering Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) regarding the lakes/water-bodies in city in 2007 and their area, as well as lakes/water-bodies existing today (2022) within their area. NMC’s said department, in reply to Kolarkar’s application under Right to Information (RTI) Act, cited official records and stated that there were 13 lakes in city in 2007. However, at present (2022), 11 lakes exist in the city. Obviously, in NMC’s own admission, as per the reply to Kolarkar’s application, two lakes have vanished during these 15 years. These two water-bodies are Sanjay Nagar Talao and Dobe Talao.
In the same reply to RTI application of Kolarkar, NMC’s said department stated that 11 lakes that existed as of today are as follows: Gorewada is the largest one with an area of 157 hectares, followed by Ambazari with area of 155 hectares, Futala spread over 40 Ha, Gandhisagar spread over 18 Ha, and Sonegaon with an area of 16.42 Ha. All other lakes namely Sakkardara (3.68 Ha), Pandhrabodi (3.30 Ha), Naik Talao (3 Ha), Lendi Talao (2.60 Ha), Police Line Takli (2.02 Ha), and Binaki Mangalwari (1.21 Ha) do not even have double-digit area as per the official records today.
As far as Sanjay Nagar Talao and Dobe Talao are concerned, as per NMC’s official reply, there has been ‘informal settlement’. When ‘The Hitavada’ spoke to a senior officer as to what did the term ‘informal settlement’ mean, that officer replied that it meant ‘encroachment’ in simple terms. Thus, officially, these two water-bodies have been killed by encroachment that came up and grew even as the city fathers and officialdom sat pretty, doing nothing. Why did they allow this to happen? To know the answer, and to understand how the fraud has been perpetrated upon the city systematically over the years, one has to revisit some old documents.
In October 2008, NMC prepared a ‘Master Plan’ for ‘Rejuvenation of Lakes of Nagpur City’. In case of Dobe Talao, the ‘Master Plan’ stated that it did ‘not feature at all’ in Development Plan (DP) of Nagpur city. “In the Development Plan of Nagpur, this Dobe Talao is not featured at all showing just how much significance is given to the lake.
The area where this small pool of water called the Dob lake is situated, is presently demarcated as a residential zone in the DP. It has almost been completely encroached upon and most of it is completely dumped upon to facilitate construction of new structures. In its present state, it has been reduced to such a small pool of about 241 sq m that it cannot be termed as a water lake,” reads a paragraph from the ‘Master Plan’.
One can say that this entire thing of the lake vanishing from city’s map and memory is a big fraud. For, how could a water body not feature in the DP of city when it existed for years together? Besides, how could an area with even a small water body/lake be demarcated as a ‘residential zone in the DP’? Further, if it has been demarcated as a ‘residential zone’, how can the next sentence state that the lake area ‘has almost been completely encroached upon’?
Even if one considers another scenario, how could the authorities demarcate the encroached upon area as ‘residential zone’, that too, in DP? Moreover, since that ‘Master (!) Plan’ of 2008, even the remaining 241 sq m area of Dobe Talao does not exist today, and has succumbed to what is in official record as ‘informal settlement’.
The sin of killing Dobe Talao has been committed by the powers-that-be in all these years despite the following recommendation in the ‘Master Plan’ -- “Existing slums should be rehabilitated and Green Zone is proposed on all sides.” Of course, there have been other recommendations, too, including dredging and desilting within the lake, increase in lake size, maximum recharge of water to be achieved by providing percolation wells etc. However, as one can see from NMC’s latest reply to RTI application, all the recommendations remained only on paper, while encroachments gulped the water body.
Similar is the case of Sanjay Nagar Talao, popularly referred to as Khadan as there once existed a mine in the area. Again, the ‘Master (!) Plan’ of 2008 stated that the lake did ‘not feature’ in DP for the city. Instead, the DP showed the entire area of the lake as ‘reserved for residential development’. Since 1992, there exists an ‘informal settlement’ around the lake. That area is referred to as Nehru Nagar. The same plan had recommended in 2008 that ‘rehabilitation and
resettlement policy should be adopted for the slum pockets surrounding and encroaching the water body, without which this lake will certainly diminish’. Till not many years ago, NMC officials used to tell mediapersons that the idols immersed during festive season were finally dumped at Sanjay Nagar Talao. Sadly, and shockingly, in case of Sanjay Nagar Talao too, none of the recommendations has seen the light of the day.
The modus operandi of vested interests, from the above, becomes clear. First, they allow encroachments to take place, then they neglect dumping of waste from these encroachments into the lake, then they turn blind eye towards the drying up of the water body, then finally make such statements as ‘not feature’ in DP, then they use terms like ‘informal
settlement’ etc and reserve the area of shrinking water body for ‘residential zone’, and then they finally get these encroachments regularised. In the process, the city loses water body after water body. Though greedy constructions come up in growing numbers, ground water recharge takes a hard hit due to silent killing of water bodies.
Can Nagpur city afford to let water-bodies die? Even if the powers-that-be have been party to crime of disappearing of water bodies, should the Nagpurians allow themselves to be partners in that sin? If not, it is time for Nagpurians to speak up and hold the city fathers and officials accountable.