Rivers and Lakes of Anekal

3. Drainage: Anekal Taluk base drainage is from IndiaWRIS. This base drainage is validated & harmonized using Cadastral maps (Survey done in 1900’s) and Survey of India Toposheets (D43X13_57H13, D43X9_57H9, D43X10_57H10, D43X14_57H14). Extensive ground truthing was done over the course of 5 months based on which drainage is harmonized. The drainage harmonization does not mean that the drainage is representative of the drainage on the ground, which is altered by industrialization and urbanization. It means that the drainage alteration is acknowledged by ground truthing, but a decision has been taken to retain the original drainage in most cases, while a few are updated. One such update is the drainage downstream of lakes -Muthanallur Amanikere and Gopasandra_104.

The drainage is in blue and grey colors. Some of the lower-order streams are represented in grey (which fades into the background) to improve the map’s readability.

4. Rivers of Anekal: Dakshina Pinakini, Chinnar & Suvarnamukhi are some of the rivers of Anekal. 

• • The 46.5 kms long Chinnar River flows for  29.5 Kms in the Anekal. Hennagara, Muthanallur Ammanikere & Bidarguppe are some of the big impoundments on the Chinnar River managed by the Minor Irrigation Department.
  • The 34 Kms long Suvarnamukhi River flows for approx 3.5 kms in Anekal.
  • Antaragange & Muttiyalamma streams, tributaries of the Arkavathi river, begin their journey in Anekal.  

 Also See: The map and data  of Vrishabhavathi River, of which Suvarnamukhi river is a Tributary

 Also See: The map and data  of Arkavathi River Basin.

 Also See: The map of Dakshina Pinakini River Basin.

5. Lakes of Anekal: The map identifies 285 lakes whose area is greater than 3 acres. 

Lake names are unique. However, some lakes have the same name, and to uniquely identify them, the lake name is suffixed with the lake survey number as done by Anekal Gram Panchayat Office. 

• Survey of India toposheets (D43X13_57H13, D43X9_57H9, D43X10_57H10, D43X14_57H14)
• European Commission’s Global Surface Water Explorer
• Bhuvan’s Water Bodies Information System
• Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre’s (KSRSAC) Cadastral Map  and Tank Information System (TIS)
• Shri K.B Koilwad’s Committee report on matters related to encroachments and Conservation of waterbodies in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts.
• National Wetland Atlas: Karnataka,  Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, India. 

6.Lake Custodian: Of the 285 lakes of Anekal Taluk

• Two hundred fifty-six (256) come under the jurisdiction of Zilla Panchayat (marked as blue on the Map).
• Twenty-seven (27) are under Minor Irrigation (marked as green).
• Two (2) are Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) (marked as Orange). 

Note: Harluru, Kasavanahalli, Gunjur, Parapanna Agrahara & Halnayakanahalli lakes are outside of Anekal and are marked for context and are not included in the count. Some lakes, like Attibele, are spread over both Anekal Taluk in Bengaluru Urban district of Karnataka and Krishnagiri district of Tamilnadu and are counted.

7. Area: The Lake area on the map is in Acre-Gunta format. The area data is extracted from Shri K.B Koilwad’s Committee report on matters related to encroachments and the Conservation of waterbodies in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts.

8. Live Capacity: Each of the twenty-seven Minor Irrigation (MI) Lake’s live capacity is shown on the map in Million Cubic Feet (MCFt). The totalMI live capacity in the taluk is 794.28 MCFt. The data is from the Minor irrigation document published on 1st Apr 2012, listing details of all the minor irrigation tanks in the state, which we now have.

9. Bannerughatta National Park: Approx. 5.8% of the taluk is occupied by Bannerughatta National Park, as shown on the map. If we included the National Park’s Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ), 12.5% of the Taluk area would come under the national park & its ESZ. The national park boundaries are sourced from KSRSAC.

15. Sewage Treatment Plants (STP): Anekal Taluk has three sewage treatment plants, as marked on the map. The STP data is sourced from various KSPCB documents and its existence verified on the ground.

• Golden Enviro, a private STP,has a 100 Kilo Litre/ Day Installed Treatment Capacity (see above Hennagara Lake). This STP treats industrial sewage. At the time of writing this, we cannot ascertain the working conditions of the STP.
• Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board (KUWS & DB) implemented 3.3 MLD (Million liters per Day Installed Treatment Capacity) on the bank of Chinnar River. This STP is not functional at the time of writing this.
• Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board (KUWS & DB) implemented 3.1 MLD (Million liters per Day Installed Treatment Capacity) established on the lake bed of Haladenahalli Lake. It is found to be erratically functional at the time of writing.

16. Open Pit Stone Quarries: Open pit quarries are identified from the European agency’s sentinel Satellites and Google Earth imagery. The map shows the western part of Anekal, in the Arkavathi catchment, where most open-pit quarries are located. Some quarries are inside the Bannerughatta National Park, and many are immediately outside (in the park’s eco-sensitive zone). The waste generated by quarry activities has high concentrations of toxic heavy metals, which then get washed away to the nearest water bodies.

17. Transport Infrastructure: Transport infrastructure like roads is a major source of unquantified water pollution that receives zero attention, and thus roads are marked. Some roads marked are Hosur Road, Bannerughatta Main Road, Anekal-Attibele Road, Anekal -Hosur Road, Anekal Main Rd, Huskur Main Rd, Kaggalipura Rd &  Begur Koppa Road.   Bangalore-Salem Railway line is also marked.

• The US EPA (1996) estimates that up to half of suspended solids and a sixth of hydrocarbons reaching streams originate from freeways. 
• Vehicle-related particulates in highway runoff come mostly from tire and pavement wear (about a third each), engine and brake wear (about 20%), and exhaust (about 8%). 
• Each year, millions of gallons of improperly discharged used motor oil pollute streams, lakes, and coastal areas. It should be a cause for concern since one gallon of used oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

18. Ground Water: Since 2009, Central Ground Water Board has been classifying Anekal Taluk’s ground water as over exploited. ( 2009, 2014, 2020)