While small encroachments over SWDs are cleared, big builders, who are the real culprits, go scot-free.

The civic body, which remains in slumber through most of the year, gets into work mode only after it starts raining and much damage is done. Besides encroachments and unscientific concretisation of roads, the main reason for flooding is the clogging of both SWDs and feeder drains. The BBMP seems to have forgotten the basic requirements to keep the city running.

Unless this nexus is broken, there is no hope for the city, which once prided itself as most liveable and stress-free. Such encroachments and flagrant violation of building plans are common across Bengaluru, and that could not have taken place so blatantly without the active connivance of the builders’ lobby, local corporators, the BBMP, bureaucrats and politicians. That is testimony to the havoc that rampant encroachment of lakes and lake beds has led to. Given the undulating topography of the city, flooding should not have been an issue at all, but over the years, encroachment of stormwater drains (SWD) and lakes and illegal constructions have constrained the free flow of water. It was the IT corridor part of the Outer Ring Road, where many buildings are directly or indirectly owned by politicians, that was most impacted. Floods are largely a man-made problem in Bengaluru. Read | Flooding result of Bengaluru govt's negligence in Bellandur lake restorationįlooding is the norm at the slightest hint of rains now, and what is concerning is that both the government and the BBMP seem clueless about how to mitigate the suffering of the people. People travel in boats, vehicles are towed away, and lanes have turned into rivers. Bengaluru has seen disruption and devastation of an unprecedented kind when sudden downpours flooded the city and its suburbs, bringing misery to thousands of people and causing much damage.Ī young lady was electrocuted while wading through water, and a good part of the city floated in flood waters.

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