Lake=Life T-shirts mark the year that was

Citizen Matters

ARATHI MANAY, 11 Jun 2012 

It's been two years since we formed PNLIT!  

To commemorate Founder's Day, today we launch our PNLIT LAKE=LIFE T-shirts.

T-shirt design

The purpose of the T-shirts is to increase awareness about the importance of lakes and PNLIT's model of citizen participation in the preservation of our Public Open Spaces. The money generated will go towards the maintenance and improvement of Puttenahalli Lake.

Our thanks to Nagesh of Opus CDM for the creative design - concentric ripples of water, the reflection of the clouds with the shadow of a bird and a tree-leaf... together signifying "life" at a lake.  

These "Anniversary Limited Edition" Unisex T-shirts are available in Green Polo neck (sizes S, M, L, XL - currently Rs 390, Assorted colour Round neck (sizes S, M, L - currently Rs 280) and suitable for children from approximately Age 8 upwards and adults.  

To get your T-shirts get in touch with the following PNLIT representatives  L&T South City: Sapana (9880554136), Krishnapriya (9449039195)

Brigade Millennium: Nupur (9886629769), Prasanna (9845580227), Ramaswamy (9845079076), Swarupa (9886762618) or emailputtenahalli.lake@gmail.com / pnlitonline@gmail.com.

THE PAST YEAR... 

The past year has been very eventful and busy for us, with our focus on making Puttenahalli Lake a well-patronised Public Open Space and a secure avian habitat. 

Our sincere appreciation to our volunteers: PNLIT Mitra, PNLIT Young Rangers and other Support Volunteers who have provided invaluable help on various activities as and when they have been able to spare the time. 

We received numerous enquiries from other citizen groups and individuals from Bangalore and other parts of India and interacted with many of them. Several groups, formal and informal have subsequently been formed to save, restore and preserve their local lakes. A lot of recognition has also come our way - featured on Times Now Amazing Indians, shortlisted as a finalist for the Namma Bengaluru Awards, interviewed and featured in various media - television, radio, internet and print. We hope that all this is an indication of the viability of citizen participation in local governance. Along with the BBMP, we are looking to establish the "Puttenahalli Lake Model" as a replicable and self-sustaining model for saving, restoring and preserving lakes.   

The most recent recognition is the nomination for the Procam People's Green Star Award. Voting is currently in progress and scheduled to end in the third week of June. Don't forget to show your support by voting for PNLIT to win the People's Green Star Award. To vote click here. 

In order to meet the obligations of our MOU with BBMP we realized the need to raise enough money to meet the maintenance expenses of the lake and to fund infrastructural ideas that were not a part of BBMP's restoration plan. Apart from donations from individual well-wishers, we looked at unconventional methods too. Our participation in Mahindra Spark the Rise was one such effort and we were delighted to receive a grant from Mahindra to meet some of our infrastructure expenditure. We raised some money by registering as an NGO for the TCS Bangalore 10K run. PNLIT now has a shop on eBay charity where miscellaneous products are put on sale and donations can be made. Donations to PNLIT are exempt u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act. We spend judiciously and make your rupee go a long way!   

We started new citizen-participation initiatives: Weekend Volunteers, Senior Citizen Volunteers, Community Gardening, Composting. We now grow vegetables at the lake and have planted lots of fruit trees, which we hope will help in making the lake self-sustaining in future. Our PNLIT Shutterbugs and Birdwatchers have diligently documented the bird visits to Puttenahalli Lake. More than 50 species of birds have been positively identified with photo captures!    

Partnering with Enzen, our trial on the treatment of polluted water with Nano-Nutrient Solution (NNS) was very successful. Though not used in our lake, this gives a possible solution to clear up pollutants in other lakes and bring them back to life. A few corporates have started associating with PNLIT by sending their volunteers to assist, as a part of their CSR. 

Another eco-initiative, Rain Water Harvesting is now operational at Puttenahalli Lake. We are harvesting the roof areas and diverting the water to storage tanks and ground-water recharge. We hope that apart from meeting some of the water needs of the lake, this will serve as a live model to educate visitors at the lake. Our other educational initiatives include Nature Walks and Bird Watching for adults and children, Birthday tours, Nature-related workshops, Environmental Sensitivity Sessions in schools.

A portion of the RWH system

For our fitness enthusiasts who visit the lake for walks and jogs, we are happy that the lake area now has exercise bars - horizontal bars and parallel bars. This will eliminate your need to hold on to walls and trees to do your stretches!

Exercise bars being set up

The year was not without its challenges.  

There have been issues that we've had to resolve, handle and sometimes endure at different points in time, including breaching of the fencing, damaging and jumping of the inner grill, damaging of the walkway, bike riding, late-night drinking, breaking of trees and saplings, writing on benches, fires, poaching birds and eggs, garbage dumping, inflow of grey/sewage water, labour issues. The relocation of the hutment inhabitants on the encroached area near L&T South City is one issue that is still to be resolved by the BBMP.

One important activity that we were looking to complete before the monsoon this year was the diversion of rain water from Millennium Avenue (that is presently flowing the other way) into the lake and setting up a watering pipeline around the periphery. Unfortunately, we have not been able to receive the funding (approx Rs 15lakhs) for this. Diversion of rain water would help in significantly increasing the water level of the lake.       

LAKE=LIFE. Looking forward to your support and participation in our journey with Puttenahalli Lake. 

----------

Read the post online