GBBC 2026 at Puttenahalli Lake (Puttakere)

As part of the global Great Backyard Bird Count 2026, a morning bird walk was conducted on 14th February at Puttenahalli Kere, led by Dr. Ishita Das (sincere thanks to her).

We had over 30 participants including students from Jain University and residents from the lake area and beyond. 

 approx 2 hours (roughly 7 - 9 a.m.)
 0.8 km (Traveling count)
 37 species recorded

From wetland specialists to tree-top songsters, the lake was buzzing with life. The observations indicate a healthy mix of resident waterbirds and common urban woodland species.

 Indian Spot-billed Ducks & Coots (suggest healthy open water habitat)

 Gray-headed Swamphens & Little Grebes (reflect stable marsh habitat)

 Cormorants across three species (indicates healthy fish availability)

 Herons, Egrets & a Glossy Ibis (reflect shallow water zones and abundant aquatic life)

 Brahminy Kites circling overhead (suggests an active predatory layer within the lake ecosystem)

 Three species of sunbirds (reflect nectar availability in flowering trees) 

  Insectivores such as Greenish Warbler and Ashy Prinia (suggest active foraging habitats)

View the checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S300236476

A. Waterbirds & Wetland Species

• Indian Spot-billed Duck – 4
• Eurasian Coot – 3
• Gray-headed Swamphen – 7
• White-breasted Waterhen – 2
• Red-wattled Lapwing – 2
• Little Grebe – 6
• Little Cormorant – 18
• Great Cormorant – 1
• Indian Cormorant – 25
• Glossy Ibis – 1
• Little Egret – 1
• Medium Egret – 1
• Indian Pond-Heron – 5
• Gray Heron – 6
• White-browed Wagtail – 2

B. Raptors

• Black Kite – 1
• Brahminy Kite – 3

C. Tree & Urban Woodland Birds

• Greater Coucal – 1
• Asian Koel – 2
• White-throated Kingfisher – 3
• White-cheeked Barbet – 2
• Rose-ringed Parakeet – 1
• Indian Golden Oriole – 2
• House Crow – 1
• Asian Tit (Cinereous) – 4
• Common Tailorbird – 1
• Ashy Prinia – 1
• Red-whiskered Bulbul – 1
• Greenish Warbler – 1
• Indian White-eye – 1
• Common Myna – 3
• Jungle Myna – 1
• Pale-billed Flowerpecker – 3
• Purple-rumped Sunbird – 3
• Purple Sunbird – 2
• Loten's Sunbird – 1
• Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) – 3

Report on the first Family Fun Gardening Day of 2023

We are happy to share with you this report on our first Family Fun Gardening Day for 2023. It has been written by Mihika (14 yrs) who lives in the vicinity of Puttenahalli Puttakere. 

----

After a gap of 4 years and more, this Saturday on 7th January 2023, we woke up early in the morning, excited to visit Puttenahalli Lake. In spite of the cold weather my sister, mother, five of my friends and I were gung-ho about spending our weekend sweating it out for a cause. We had attended the Family Fun Gardening Day at Puttenahalli Lake a few years back, before Covid, and we were really excited to go again.

At first I was nervous to meet new people and socialise but when we arrived, Sapana, Divya and Rashmi aunty from PNLIT, made us feel at home and the head gardener Ramu uncle guided us on the proper ways to complete the tasks at hand. Though there were not as many people like the earlier times we were eager to get going, so with a jump and skip we started.

The lake has become more beautiful since the last time we visited! It was now filled to the brim due to good rainfall over the past 4-5 months. We saw so many different birds enjoying the sun. I still remember the lake being dry earlier and this was such a happy contrast! I am not a regular visitor to the lake and I was soaking in the atmosphere but there was work to be done!

We started off with raking the dry leaves to clear the garden a bit, then we cut off the excess leaves growing off the hedges, after that we removed the weeds growing in the garden area. Ramu uncle guided us throughout and showed us how to do each of these tasks. It was hard work but we did take the customary selfie breaks and photo sessions.

After finishing all the tasks we were really tired but we truly enjoyed our time here. We had been so engrossed that we hadn’t looked at the clock! Those 2 + hours of work just didn’t feel like 120 minutes of raking, cleaning and deweeding. All of us had so much fun and didn't want to leave. This was the best start to a weekend!

We will surely attend the upcoming gardening events as it is truly great fun. I will also visit the lake on a regular basis. Thanks a ton to PNLIT for a memorable experience.

Mihika

Bioblitz at Puttenahalli Lake conducted on July 17th, 2022

About ten of us spent a couple of hours on Sunday morning (the 17th of July) at our Puttakere covering as much as ten metres. And yet, even as we appeared to move hardly at all, Time flew!  There was just so much to keep us absorbed. The space was a compressed scroll, opening out into discoveries of sight and sound and scent - and eventually, even taste! Kaustubh Rau who led the Bioblitz began by having us look closely at the trunk of the mahogany on which fire ants (an invasive species, apparently) ran up and down sticking and stitching their leafy nests even as the lichen grew slowly, patiently. Those ants looked like ants but we also saw "spiders" which turned out to be ants, spiders who strung up their egg sacs (little green dots) in their nest-webs, spiders who left their "signatures" in their webs. What an intricate world theirs is!

It was a beautiful morning, shot through with that special silver-gold light of the monsoon (when it's not raining). A pair of dragonflies were locked in a long embrace, butterflies flitted about, coots and grebes chased each other  in a flurry of wings across the water. At one point mynahs started calling out loudly. We turned to see what the cackling was about and watched as the mynahs escorted a long rat snake (most probably) across the path, heckling it all the while. 

We saw cormorants, darters, purple moor hens, egrets, water hens, coots, spot billed ducks, a swooping brahminy kite, a slider turtle, all hanging out comfortably in what was evidently their home - sitting on the perches, drying their wings, staring out at the water, occasionally chatting with each other or diving into the water for a snack. A mother grebe left her nest with three little chicks following. The fourth eventually left, hitching a ride on daddy's back! 

In those two hours, we peered down, gazed up, crinkled our eyes to stare at movements across the water. There were strange beautiful fruit dangling from gorgeous broad-leafed exotic trees (the "Buddha Coconut" tree); the Kadam, the "badminton ball" (even though, as one participant pointed out, badminton is not actually played with a ball!) tree, a huge leafed "money plant", the cassia, the "pride of India", all held our attention. Eventually we ended up at a shortish tree (tall-ish shrub) studded with bright red "cherries". Delicious! 

Nearing the end of the walk, we spotted a darter trying to rid itself of what looked like a ball of string from its beak, desperately rubbing it against various surfaces. It was painful to watch. The bird was evidently in some distress. The trustees were informed and they called the ARRC, hoping they would be able to bring some relief to the bird- they had released a fishing net from the beak of another darter only a week ago. The next day, we got to know that the darter had not allowed the rescue team anywhere near. No matter; it turned out that the bird had managed to get rid of the string ball all by itself, no human intervention needed after all.

Bioblitz or no, humans reverently gazing at them or just hurrying past or no, creatures live out their compelling lives - and although in a sane world their ability to do so should not lie within the power of humans, at the moment it does.  Photographs when uploaded on to the inaturalist.org platform (under "Puttenahalli Lake") allows for all these to live out their natural lives on this planet as they were meant to do.

Sonali Sathaye

South City resident

Tracking the flora and fauna at our Puttakere

We are happy to have created a project space for Puttenahalli Lake on the iNaturalist platform 
- for all of us to track the flora and fauna found in our lake. 

Please explore  https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/puttenahalli-lake  and add your observations - from the little spider in a corner of the gazebo at the lake to the statue-like heron waiting to snatch a fish from the water. 

To do this, you need to join the group. Please follow the directions given below: 

On Web browser:

- Go to https://www.inaturalist.org. Log in with your Gmail/Facebook ID or sign up with your email ID.

- On the top menu, go to Community >Project. In the input box, enter Puttenahalli Lake and click Go.

- You will see Puttenahalli Lake Project. Click on it. 

- On the top right side you will see Join this Project. Click and  become a member
of Puttenahalli Lake Project.

On Mobile
- Install iNaturalist from Playstore or Appstore.

- Log in as mentioned for Web browser above.

- Select Projects on the hamburger.
- Search for Puttenahalli Lake Project in the search box.
- Puttenahalli Lake Project will show up. Click on it. 

- Click on Join button to become a member.

Upload the photographs of birds, trees, plants, insects that you take at our Puttenahalli Lake
for everyone to see and admire.

 

- Do not worry if you don't know the name of the bird, tree, plant or insect.
This is a global community of naturalists. Someone from somewhere will identify it for you!

- Do not worry if the species is already uploaded. The more the better!

- Please upload good photos. The greater the clarity, the easier to identify the species!

- And please add only photographs taken at our Puttakere to this page!  

A quick update on the lake - While the sewage inflow has stopped and the rain is
diluting the sediment, it is still providing rich nutrition for the weeds to grow and
cover the water. 

                                  Removing weeds

BBMP is getting the weeds removed. This time, there are several new ones and we are
constantly sending photos to Dr. Subbu to identify! His comment on the two species
in the photograph is particularly heartwarming. 

"Chara sp. and Ottelia alismoides... These two mostly grow in clean waters:
like the lakes of Bangalore in the 1980s."

In spite of the impurities, the exposed water does look delightfully clean.

We hope it improves further in the days to come!

“Once there was a tank called Puttenahalli Puttakere….”

As many may have noticed, BBMP has been cleaning our little Puttenahalli Lake in J.P. Nagar 7th Phase, for nearly a month now. After ‘dewatering’ the lake, they began to remove the contaminated soil, from the surface in some places and further below at others.  A fortnight ago, these pits filled with black water and at other places, damp patches formed where weeds began to grow. The underground water was getting exposed by the digging we thought, but the patches became pools which grew in number and size. 

 

A LEAKING PIPE:

On 3^rd February, our gardeners reported that water was entering the wetland through one of the inlet pipes which discharged surface runoff from South City. We contacted the apartment complex immediately. They checked and rechecked. This inflow wasn’t from South City.

 

Was this leakage from the newly installed UNDERGROUND DRAIN (UGD) that BWSSB had laid last year? 

The ward office sent a contractor to locate the source and plug it. By then, there was some seepage from below the inlet pipes as well. He suggested that we block the pipe with sandbags. The back flow would indicate possible source which could  be repaired. We did as he asked.

 

The sandbags remained in place and dry though the seepage from below the pipes increased as did the water level in the lake! In just four days, i.e., by Sunday 7^th Feb., many of the pools had not only grown but, they and the trenches dug by the excavators had vile, floating mass which was visible from a distance. We knew only too well just what it was - sewage. Once again. 

 

THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME

In 2017, an occasional trickle of sewage from the UGD at Nataraja Layout began to enter the lake through the storm water drain. Each time, the BWSSB Ward Office removed the blockage with a jetting machine. When it became a regular feature, we escalated the issue to the Head Office, but no action was taken. The polluted water led to a massive fish kill in March 2018.

We desperately tried to alleviate the damage by installing an aerator fountain in April 2019. However, infuriated with the sewage overflowing on the road, the residents of the layout opened up the drain and led it directly into the lake on 3^rd June 2019. Sewage started to gush inside. 

 

LAYING OF THE (NOW LEAKING) UGD:

In deep anguish, we were on the verge of giving up altogether when we appealed to Sri Jayaram, then Chairman, KSPCB and later at a meeting of the NGT Green Tribunal Committee chaired by Hon'ble Justice Sri Santosh Hedge. Sri Tushar Girinath, then Chairman of BWSSB who was present at this meeting agreed to get the existing UGD replaced with a bigger one but warned that the slum could be an obstruction.  Nevertheless, he kept his word and work began in August 2019.

 

Working between the sewage filled lake on the one side and the illegal houses on the other, progress was very slow. All the while, the slum dwellers kept a keen watch and, nervous for their safety, even picked up fights with the workers.

 

 

At the stretch where a few houses came in the way, BWSSB compromised by laying that section of the pipe on the REVETMENT on the water side. This exposed pipe developed cracks and the contractor’s patchwork repair gave way at least twice in January 2021. 

 

Now, not only was this section leaking yet again but along with it, the entire length of revetment along the new drain was damp and foul water was collecting to form pools. 

 

 

BWSSB responded at once to the alert and worked till the early hours on 11^th Feb, to clear the blockage. They are still at it today. While we appreciate their prompt response, jetting or temporary measures will not do. They need to come up with a permanent solution if the lake is to be saved. 

 

COULD ALL THIS HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?

Yes. If only the government had acted on the Order of the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka, passed on 7th March 2019 in W.P. Nos. 5073 – 5187 / 2015 (GM –RES).  These Writ Petitions filed by the slum dwellers were disposed of with a direction to (1) Principal Secretary (Revenue), (2) Deputy Commissioner and (3) Slum Board to take a decision on the slum dwellers’ representations (to the Deputy Commissioner on 23.09.2014) where they asked for allotment of individual plots instead of the temporary sheds already built for them by the Slum Board (and which they demolished in July 2018).

 

The Court gave twelve weeks’ time to the Respondents. On the 7th of March, next month, it would be two years since the High Court passed the order. The authorities concerned are yet to take any decision.

 

Time and again, we reminded them of the High Court order and the urgency for early action, given the sewage inflow. Frustrated at the Respondents passing the buck from one to another, we met the Additional Chief Secretary (Urban Dev.), the Chief Secretary (twice) and emailed the Chief Minister of Karnataka. In Jan 2020, we filed a case with the LOKAYUKTA to take action against the errant officials for dereliction of duty.  The next hearing is on 3rd March but, going by our past experience, we are fairly certain that the matter will get postponed further.  

 

HOW LONG CAN A BUND THAT IS ALREADY WEAK, HOLD UP, BEFORE ENDANGERING THE SLUM DWELLERS?

Way back in Sept 2017, we had alerted  BBMP and all the Respondents about the poor condition of the bund on the slum side. The inner grill had tilted in places and sections of it had fallen down.This happened because these residents had levelled the slope at many places to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers. In the process, they dislodged the boulders that were embedded on the bottom half of the revetment. On 28^th May 2020, one of the houses on the bund collapsed and was quickly rebuilt. Since then, the bund has grown considerably weaker. The inner grill is almost nonexistent.

 

BBMP planned to strengthen the bund once the lake basin is cleared of the sewage sediment. With the UGD still leaking, and likely to do so in the future, what will they do now?

   

THE OUTCOME?

Our Puttenahalli Lake which looked this on 19/04/2019

Looks like this today, 12/02/2021

From 2010, working closely with the BBMP, residents from the neighbourhood and CSR partners, we toiled to bring a dry lake back to life. We overcame several obstacles on the way but 11 years later, the biggest two still remain – encroachment and sewage.

We have no words to describe our feelings at this point. If this situation continues we, and you, will soon have to say, “Once there was a tank called Puttenahalli Puttakere….”

PNLIT Trustees

Why do we even bother about Puttenahalli Lake?

It is with deep anguish that we are sharing the news of a house in the slum on our lake bund collapsing in the rain on the night of 28th May. Fortunately there was no loss of life or injury to anyone. 

House collapse, 28th March 2020

The Hindu, 30th March 2020

After seeing how extensively the slum dwellers had damaged the revetment by leveling the slope for their kitchen gardens and planting by the edge of the water, we had alerted the concerned authorities in Sept. 2017. The boulders had become dislodged, the walking track was uneven and sections of the inner grill had fallen down.  

We are particularly upset because this would not have happened if only the slum dwellers had shifted to the temporary sheds that the Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) had built for them in 2014 at Bettadasanapura. By now, they would have been staying in 1bhk flats.

Rejecting the temporary accommodation as too small, they had filed a writ petition in February 2015 in the High Court asking for 20 feet x 30 feet sheds or individual plots of land. However, this didn't stop them from taking possession of the sheds on 24.02.2017 even though they continued to stay at the lake premises. When the matter was in the court, they razed 114 out of 118 sheds to the ground in July 2018. KSDB filed an FIR at the Bettadasanapura police and left it at that. We learnt about this after reading a report in the newspaper.

Deccan Herald, Sep 2018

The High Court disposed of the writ petition on 07.03.2019 with a directive to Respondent 1 - Principal Secretary (Revenue), Respondent 2 - Deputy Commissioner (Urban) and Respondent 3 - Karnataka Slum Development Board that they "shall take a decision on the representations of the petitioners in accordance with law in an expedite manner in any event, not later than twelve weeks from the date of receipt of the certified copy of the order. The petitioners shall not be evicted from the property in question till the decision is taken by respondent Nos.1 to 3.”   

We personally handed over the certified copy of the judgement to each of the respondents and reminded them every so often about this order. The 12 weeks stretched to 14 months, the Respondents have still not acted on the judgment. Emboldened perhaps by this, by the fact that the Slum Board did not pursue the FIR at the Bettadasanapura police station, and by the direction in the judgement, the slum dwellers refused to cooperate with BWSSB and BBMP to complete the underground drain and divert raw sewage entering the lake. 

With some six or seven houses built right next to the pathway above the drain, BWSSB was constrained to lay a new line a few feet above the water (photo attached). 

On 11th June 2020, PNLIT will complete 10 years as custodians of Puttenahalli Puttakere. What have we achieved in these many years? 

• We are the first citizens' group to sign an MoU with the BBMP and become official custodians of a lake in Bengaluru. 
• We have encouraged others, individuals and RWAs, to become lake warriors. 
• With permission from KSPCB filled the lake with treated water from an apartment complex.
• Introduced a low cost water purification model with our Artificial Floating Islands that have since been introduced in some other lakes. 
• Installed an aerator fountain in April 2019.
• The once dry periphery of the lake now has rich green cover with  trees, shrubs and climbers.
• Since 2010, the  lake has attracted over 100 birds (ebird link), insects, reptiles and more. 
• Butterflies are swarming at the lake even as we write this.  

Aerial view, January 2020

Yet, when we look back we see the misery of a collapsed house, sewage killing the lake and weeds growing rampantly. 

Aerial view, May 2020

What we feel is the burden of challenges that seem insurmountable even after striving so hard to resolve them. And now, the deep worry that no more houses should collapse in the days to come.  

Ten years later, we are left with these questions:

If the government is not interested in protecting lakes, why do we worry about Puttenahalli Lake?

If they will not follow a High Court judgement, why will they listen to us, ordinary folks trying to save a lake in the neighbourhood? 

Why, indeed, should we bother about Puttenahalli Lake?

Hope and Cheer at the lake in the times of COVID

The dark days of COVID 19 continue for us, humans, but the lockdown, it appears, has opened the doors of the animal kingdom. Our lake, unfortunately, continues to be plagued by sewage with the BWSSB replacing the underground drain at a snail's pace. We recognize and accept that they are hampered by the curfew, non-availability of workers and the occasional rain. Yet, we can't but hope fervently that they will pick up speed in the next few days and complete the drain replacement. Our lake has suffered enough, please, with pollutants and encroachers! 

In this bleak phase, what lifts our spirits is the surprising return of birds to our Puttenahalli Lake. 

Following the first shower a few weeks ago, we spotted from a distance, Egrets, Purple Swamphens, Eurasian Coots and Little Grebes. Our gardeners, who had been coming on alternate days to water the plants reported the presence of a large number of butterflies. Their photographs, grainy and shaky confirmed it but how do we see these for ourselves? Fortunately, last week we received an order from the BBMP to open the lake with restricted timings. That was enough for our photographers to make a beeline to the lake. 

Purple-rumped Sunbird (Pic: Gopinath Subbarao)

Plain Tiger (Pic: Aditi Mahesh)

Other than several Coots, Grebes, Waterhens and Purple Swamphens, Madhurima reported three pairs of Common Moorhens (they were foraging together and chasing away intruders) and a pair of Bronze-winged Jacanas. She saw a Terrapin and a Pheasant-tailed Jacana and, of course, swarms of butterflies. 

Bronze-winged Jacanas (Pic: Madhurima Das)

Common Moorhens (Pic: Madhurima Das)

Terrapin basking in the sun (Pic: Madhurima)

Ah the butterflies ... ! We had first feasted our eyes on Nupur's video and shared it with a few friends. Like a growing ripple, it reached more people. 

On Sunday, The Hindu carried an article on the butterflies swarming not just in our lake but in green spaces in the city. Since then, their number at the lake has increased considerably. Our gardener Ramu's video shows a veritable cloud of Dark Blue Tigers!

Apparently, this is the pre-monsoon migration of butterflies to escape the incessant rain in the southern part of the western ghats (Sahyadri). To know more, please see: http://biodiversitylab.ncbs.res.in/butterfly-migrations

BBMP ordered the lake to be locked from today as a precautionary measure. If you are not able to see the stragglers leave, you can do so when they return between mid-Oct and early Dec. 

We shall prevail over these tough times and take delight in these beauties of nature. Go Green and keep the planet safe for all its denizens.  Be safe, stay indoors. 

Lake story on Republic TV today

In the program 'Har Ek Boond', Republic TV will be telecasting the Puttenahalli Lake story today at 4.30 p.m. 

Do watch.

Here is a trailer to the program.