In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) quoted Dr Hita Unnikrishnan’s research and mentioned that urban development has taken a toll on the water tanks in Bengaluru which were managed traditionally by communities. A postdoctoral research associate at the Urban Institute, The University of Sheffield and a visiting faculty at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, Unnikrishnan has worked extensively on the lakes of Bengaluru, particularly from a historical perspective.
For her work on Bengaluru, she has previously been awarded a British Academy funded Newton International Fellowship in 2018 and The Prof Elinor Ostrom Fellowship for Policy and Practice on the Commons in 2013.
Q: What is the historical significance of lakes in Bengaluru?
The city of Bengaluru is both without a major river flowing through it and lies in a rain shadow. This means that the city is naturally semi-arid and very prone to having water shortages. However, as history tells us, the city has been in continuous occupation from prehistoric times. This is only possible if the water scarcity issue within the city was addressed in some way. That is where the lakes come in – none of the lakes are natural within the city. They are all part of an impressive feat of historical geo-engineering.
The natural elevation of the city as well as its undulating terrain provided the base for creating a series of rain fed reservoirs, connected to each other by channels – the rajakaluves. A system of flowing water was thus created where water from one lake would overflow via these rajakaluves into the next one across the elevation gradient, at the same time recharging shallow aquifers associated with them.
Because these lakes were seasonal and would dry up during the summer, these shallow aquifers were also tapped into through open wells, thus creating year-round supplies of water that enabled the flourishing of agrarian settlements and thus the growth of the early city. These lakes continued to provide water to the city for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes even into the colonial period until the city started getting water through long-distance transfers in the late nineteenth century.
