Hulimavu lake breach: Residents left to clean up as civic body indulges in blame game

Slush, mud, weeds and garbage had entered the homes of people living in Bengaluru's Hulimavu on Sunday afternoon after sewage from the Hulimavu Lake flooded their homes. Over 300 people living in Krishna Layout returned to their homes on Monday morning only to find that their belongings had been washed away in the water.

Adjoining the Hulimavu Lake on the northern boundary is Krishna Layout. The back walls of the hutments in the colony are attached to the cement wall of the primary stormwater drain connecting to the lake.

The houses in the area are boxed in with just a three-foot gap on the northern end of the locality for people to enter and exit.

On Sunday afternoon, an earthmover had arrived near the lake's exit where the bund's wall was dug up to allow the water from the overflowing lake to pass through the rajakaluve (stormwater drain).

The damage

"Initially, we didn't pay much attention to it because it is a common occurrence. But when the water started flowing out of the kaluve (stormwater drain), some of us went and tried to put mud and stones to stop the water, but the force of the water was too much," says Shobha, a 35-year-old resident of the area.

By 2 pm, the water began gushing into Krishna Layout from the three-foot gap in the northern boundary. Residents climbed up the roof and camped on the tarpaulin even as frantic efforts to stop the water flow began.

"When the water came gushing down suddenly, we ran away from the house. Even the police could not do much as the force of the water was too high," said Ashwath, a 45-year-old gardener.

The flash-flood devastated the residents of Krishna Layout as most of them are blue-collar workers. 38-year-old Valli, says that all her clothes and utensils were washed away by the floods. Her LPG cylinder had landed up at the doorstep of another neighbour.

The blame game

According to Arekere corporator Bhagyalakshmi Murali, two weeks ago, the state government had released Rs 6 crore via the Bengaluru Development Authority for the rejuvenation of the lake. This happened after the state government diverted the Rs 24 crore allocated for lake rejuvenation towards helping victims of North Karnataka floods.

"When the floods began, we found that a contractor named Karthik, who was carrying out repair works of sewage treatment plants and stormwater drains in the area, had sent an earthmover to the lake. Karthik's men dug up a five-foot hole in the bund located at the exit point of the lake. His men did this without calculating whether the mud wall would be able to withstand the force of the water," he said.

Corporator Murali says that the BBMP Assistant Engineer-in-charge of Hulimavu Lake rejuvenation, Shilpa K, informed him on Sunday that the BBMP had sent Karthik to start lake rejuvenation work.

However, when TNM contacted Shilpa, she denied that the BBMP had issued the order to the contractor.

"We do not know who did this. The BBMP just got funds for rejuvenating the lake. We haven't even floated tenders for the rejuvenation. How can we be blamed for issuing the order? We have written up a report based on what the residents told us. We are investigating the matter," Shilpa said.

BBMP corporator Bhagyalakshmi says that the civic body is yet to procure CCTV footage from Krishna Kuteera circle, where the camera has captured footage of the earthmover that was deployed to dig up the bund.

"We got busy with cleaning up after the flood. We will examine the footage, get a hold of the driver of the earthmover and question him. We will get to the bottom of this," she said.