Name of the Institution: Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies

Name of the Students: Group 11

1. K Bhavya (C024)
2. Pagadala Tarun Tej (C038)
3. Sharath Kumar (C051)
4. Shibani Dhore (C053)
5. Sindhu Kruthi Pagadala (C058)

Name of the Faculty: Dr. Deepti Ganapathy

Title: Frothing with Fury: A Curious Case of Bengaluru Lakes

Date of Submission: 16-08-2018

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 (K Bhavya C024)
Frothing with Fury – A Curious Case of Bengaluru Lakes

The environmental conditions of any lake ecosystem depend upon the nature of that wetland and its exposure
to various environmental factors. These fragile ecosystems must maintain a state of environmental equilibrium
with its existing surrounding, particularly in the prospective of waste pollution. Pollution of lakes in Bengaluru
has been largely attributed to the rapid and uncontrollable expansion of the built-up areas. Even though various
measures are now being undertaken to check the levels of degradation, the picture still looks gloomy for many
of these water bodies in urban and rural Bengaluru. In order to get a closer to permanent solution to this issue,
we believe that it has to be tackled at ground root level. This can be done only by directly approaching the
people involved and educating them about the kind of pressure such degrading activities can have on aquatic
life in these ecosystems and also the area surrounding these lakes. Solving the problem at the end point will only
lead to more serious repercussions and hence has to be addressed at source points with strict enforcements of
environmental laws and regulations.

Current scenario: Huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky from the middle of a lake, lakes being covered with a
snow-like froth and to say the least, Bengaluru will be uninhabitable by 2025; These are a few chilling titles that
would put the current scenario of Bengaluru’s lakes in the forefront of the issues faced due to irresponsible
urbanization in Bengaluru. A lethal mix of factors create an environment that merely requires the slightest of
triggers for lakes to go up in flames. Untreated effluents pour into the waters from the many industries and
homes on its banks, illegal waste disposal takes place on a large scale – often including rubbish which is set on fire –
and invasive weeds cover large swathes of the lake in a thick green canopy.

(Sindhu Kruthi Pagadala C058)

Situational analysis: According to a comprehensive report developed by the Environmental Management

& Policy Research Institute, Bengaluru’s lakes show what we’ve all come to fear; pollution is much more than
we’ve tabulated or believed. As much as 85% of the city’s water bodies are severely polluted, placing them in the
lowest grade of quality. Of the samples taken 85% were categorized as Class E, that is, their water can only be used
for irrigation and industrial cooling and is of the lowest grade. 13% under Class D (breeding fish and wildlife
propagation only), and the remaining 2% under Class C (disinfection and conventional treatment to make it
potable). Not one lake tested was in Grade A (drinking water) or B (can be used for bathing).
Research and Plan of Action Intended: It was essential for us to understand the surroundings of a lake
environment. what all are the shops present near-by, what type of people surrounded by the lake, what
type of wastage /garbage is present in and surrounded by the lake (plastic /paper/chemical)? Extent of
sewage role in deterioration? How wastage disposition system works for nearby shops?

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We realized that we need to work effectively at grass root level to raise a significant awareness. In order to
achieve our objective, we propose the following as part of our plan of action.

 Gather information about the extent of awareness people have regarding lake pollution (Google
Forms)

 Understand, appreciate and raise awareness about the water bodies as a whole and not just
individually

 To perform situational analysis – understand the real scenario by visiting the shops (who can be
major reason for disposing waste into lakes) nearby lakes

 Raise awareness through posters, posting article and communicating with people around lake

 Place dustbins and encourage people to dispose waste in dustbins

(Sharath Kumar C051)
Execution:
Our campaign began with the floating of google form to gauge the extent of understanding our society has on
the issue of lake pollution in Bangalore (excerpts of which are presented in the Results section). The form
played a vital role in helping us choose the right target audience. Due to constrain on time and distance, we
weren’t able to target the highly polluted Bellendur and Ulsoor lakes. We choose to examine the conditions
around the Gottegere Lake. Our prime focus was to target establishments surrounding the Gottegere Lake
and study how the improper waste disposal led to the pollution of the lake and its surroundings.
Over the past 4 weeks, we engaged with several people working in restaurants, automotive service plants and
steel and cement firm surrounding the lake. Right from our initial round of the survey, we felt that there was
a lot of reluctance among people to talk about why a water body next to their establishment was in such a
worse condition. Language was one of the major barriers for this hesitation. Many of the local workers knew
only Kannada as a result of which there was a bit of lag in communicating the reason behind this initiative and
taking their opinion. Further, since most of the low wage workers were floating crowd, many of them dint
know the actual scenario while the shop owners weren’t ready to comment only to engage in the blame
game with their neighboring shops and establishments.
After a lot of explanations and provoking, we were able to get a few testimonials in the form of audio, videos,
and photos from shopkeepers, hoteliers and the workers in the automobile service and steel firms. All
through these interviews, we clearly felt that they weren’t really interested in catering to the issue. Their
body language clearly communicated that they weren’t true to their answers. Our discussions were
interrupted many times due to customers and calls. Nevertheless, in their view, they were forced to dump
their dry and wet waste in and around the lake as it was the only huge open space. Further, they felt that
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there was no proper establishment surrounding the lake for them to dispose their trash.
Hearing their responses, we felt it would be ideal to set up a huge dust bin of vicinity of these establishments
and the lake. Further, we then notified the workers to use the Bin for further waste disposal. We spoke to the
BBMP sweepers in the locality to collect the trash on a regular basis for which we were asked to give some
cash to the sweepers. We intended to try this out for 2 weeks period and constantly monitored the
surroundings as we travelled past the lake.
(Shibani Dhore C053)
We realized that although the trash bins were being used by the surrounding shops to a major extent, there
was a lot of inconsistency in collection of the waste. We also noticed a lot of huge cardboard boxes, oil and
dyes from the small industries lying around. This clearly explained the current scenario around many lakes in
Bangalore. In simple terms, the trash bins kept in place were just not enough to cater to the different kinds of
wet and dry wastes.
When we reviewed the opinion of the same set of audience after 2 weeks, they felt positive about the
difference it had caused in their surroundings. Their testimony clearly stated the change they sensed if this
would be implemented on a larger scale. Although our initiative was not big enough to create a huge change
in their surroundings. We believe that we showed them how much better it would be for them to take care of
the water bodies by proper disposal of waste.
Evaluation and Results:
After a rollercoaster ride of the project, we finally come to the results. It was a boundless efforts of entire
project team to communicate with the locals around the lake to bring awareness regarding the lake
pollution.
Initial Step- Google forms:
The google form which we initially floated, gave us the idea about awareness among people about lake
pollution. We have got 46 responses. This gave us a glimpse of people’s interpretation about the quality of
lake. Below are the results of the survey.
 69.6% of the respondents have said that the lakes of the Bengaluru are in worse condition. Remaining
responded saying that it was in process of degrading.

(Pagadala Tarun Tej C038)

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 We got to know the names of few lakes which respondents believed that most polluted, to name few-
Ulsoor, Bellandur, Jayanagar, Gottegere.
 89.1% respondents had an opinion that Garbage like Plastic bottle, dry waste, wet waste etc are majorly
causing lake pollution.

Based on above statistics, as a basic awareness campaigning to reach all our 46 respondents at one stretch
who are present at different locations, we have published an article in mpag.in. This was shared with all
the respondents as well as PGDM09 students. Below is the link for the same. This was one of our modes of
communication as part of our awareness program.
http://www.mpag.in/2018/07/15/frothing-fury-curious-case-bengaluru-lakes/
Face to Face Communication:
After the face to face communication and execution of our awareness plan of 2 weeks, 7 of the 10
shopkeepers we had conversed with replied saying that bin was quite useful, and they started disposing
the waste in the bin except for Upahara hotel owner who said that the bin was not suffice for their daily
wastage, hence could not utilize it.
Through this project we clearly understood that water pollution hampers human life to large extent.
Although awareness and education about lake pollution are effective, concerned authorities must take
effective measures and come out with real solutions to resolve this issue.