Tales to Tell - storytelling event on 23-Jul-2017

On July 23rd we had a lovely storytelling session by Vikram Sridhar of Around the Story Tree. 

Pics by Mithun Prabhu

We asked a couple of parents who attended the session with their children to tell us what they thought about the storytelling event. Here is what they reported:

Report by Nidhi Chawla

Stories hold a special place in childhood. However, if as parents or grandparents we are unable to pass on this legacy to our young ones, there are new age story tellers to come to the rescue. Vikram Sridhar is one such professional story teller who came to tell stories to our kids last weekend at the Puttenahalli lake, JP Nagar. 

His engaging style kept the kids involved and excited. The tale of Amur falcons interspersed with a message of conservation and a tale of two sister birds and their bonding seemed appropriate for the venue where the event was held - the Puttenahalli Lake, the pride of our neighborhood, conserved and maintained by PNLIT. 

The kids vied for their turn to don the hats of a falcon, the hunter, the policeman and many other characters in the stories. Their laughter and the excited looks on their faces made it an afternoon spent well with the bonus of enjoying the splendor of nature in the middle of the city.

Report by Mithun Prabhu

Though a father of two children, I still remember listening to the stories told by my parents and grandparents and drifting off to sleep. Stories beautiful and engrossing, told with so much love. Those days are long gone as also perhaps the narrative skill in parents but thankfully we have a few enterprising and energetic Story Tellers like Vikram Sridhar who came to Puttenahalli Lake to tell children not one but two stories.

He came dressed in ethnic kurta and dhoti, started off with a bang, and from the word go engaged the kids, and pulled them into his stories. He lived the roles, made the kids join him, made them roll over in laughter, jump, dance and more importantly got everyone to speak up, answer his questions, participate in role playing, making it all a two way communication. The kids had a whale of a time that day, in a pristine lake environment, with green trees and a cool breeze blowing. It was not only the kids, but some of the parents too who were deeply engrossed in his stories, reliving perhaps their childhood days!

It was a splendid one hour spent with constructive and good use of the time, bonding between kids, parents and everyone assembled at the lake. All thanks to Vikram Sridhar and to Nupur, Usha, Sapana and team PNLIT.

7 years of PNLIT

To all who have made this journey with us, THANK YOU!

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The PNLIT team

Nothing fishy about this

A thriving Puttenahalli Lake full of water is a great sight. If there is one person happier than us at PNLIT, it must be Yellappa, the man who got the fishing contract for our lake. About a year ago he had released fingerlings of several species such as the Indian Catla, Rohu, Mrigal and the Chinese Carp (Common, Silver and Grass). He also introduced Snakehead, called Varal locally which according to the Fisheries Dept. is not grown much in our city. It is expensive and is a delicious fish.

Yellappa and men fishing, 10th May 2017

Snakehead aka Varal (Pic: Madhurima Das)

The fish are growing very well and Yellappa has begun harvesting to sell in his shop. Each time he enters the lake with his net, a crowd gathers along the side to watch him and his team throw a net into the water and draw it in with a mix of fish in different sizes.

Interested onlookers

A few days ago at about 8 a.m. when the place was crowded with morning walkers, children going to school and idlers, he got a whopper that made everyone drool. They had netted a Silver Carp, weighing over 5 kgs.

Silver Carp, 31st May 2017 (Pic courtesy Yellappa)

A young Cormorant with catch, 4th June 2017 (Pic: Madhurima Das)

Yellappa now prefers to fish at 2 a.m. The seasoned angler that he is, the dark does not faze him.  He "knows" where the fish will be, catches them, throws the smaller ones back into the water and collects the rest in his baskets. No one is around at that time to drool over Yellappa's catch. No one sees how many he gets and how big each fish is. We don't get any part of his collection, neither in catch nor in cash but as long as he ensures there's enough fish for the birds we are happy. 

Puttenahalli Lake Bird and Fauna Update

Here's an interesting collection of photos taken by Madhurima, last Sunday at the lake. 

Bronze-winged Jacana

Calotes

Fish

Greater Coucal

Oriental Darter (Snakebird)

Purple Swamphen chick

The pre-monsoon rain has increased the level considerably and the lake looks beautiful (pic by Geetha Srikrishnan).

29th May 2017

Deccan Herald Spotlight - Interactive Discussion

Deccan Herald has organised a discussion on  "Bringing Bellandur and Varthur Lakes Back to Life." As one of the panellists, Usha Rajagopalan intends to share lessons from our Puttenahalli Lake experience. Please attend if convenient.

Saturday 27th May at the East Cultural Association, 100 ft Road, Indira Nagar, Time: 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

On another note, here is a recent picture of our lake taken on 25th May 2017. The lake indeed looks gorgeous with so much water. The rain last night has brought in lots more! At this rate, we can expect it to overflow this year as well. :-)

Puttenahalli Lake, 25th May 2017

Bird watch update

If you haven't visited the lake recently, you should. It is looking great, water rippling and glinting in the sun, fish darting everywhere.

Even if you are not a birder, you cannot miss the birds - Coots, Swamp Hens, Kingfishers and more, but it takes an experienced hand to spot the chicks. Here's the latest report and pictures by our "resident birder," Madhurima Das, who visits the lake every weekend to do a census on the birds at Puttenahalli Lake. 

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At the lake this Sunday (7th May) there were many birds. Besides our usual suspects, we had both purple and grey heron, a little egret, little cormorant, a common moorhen and 2 spot billed ducks.

The bronze wing jacanas, and a night heron, brought out their respective chicks. There was also a third bronze wing jacana which was being chased around by the chick's parents. The jacana chick also attracted a brahminy kite, but, luckily for the chick, it wasn't caught.

There were also flocks of flower peckers and tailor birds. 

Black-crowned Night Heron with chick

Little Cormorant and Little Egret

Little Egret

Purple Swamphen

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Bronze-winged Jacana with chick

Why your help is vital

Friends, Please read this article: http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/cover-story/please-dont-go-bengaluru-needs-thousands-of-warriors-like-prabhashankar-rai-not-one-less/articleshow/58567168.cms

We need to grow in number and strength for the sake of our lake. 

Preparing the lake for the monsoon

March and April are scorching months but that's also when we get our lake ready for the monsoon.  VMware volunteers came over on 31st March to help us.

In the past when the lake was largely dry with only little pools of water that shrank by the day, volunteers had to pick up plastic bags, stray slippers, bottles and the like from a much larger area. This year with most of the 10 acre lake bed under water, only the highest point was dry and piled with the alligator weed removed from the water. If left there, they would sprout with the first shower. Some of the quickly multiplying salvinia molesta were trapped in the trash boom waiting to be lifted out. We may hate the plant but the fresh Salvinia makes a good manure. It had to be mixed with the dry leaves heaped in rows. Further, we wanted some big boulders brought to the wetland.

Volunteers at work

Many tasks and many hands. From 9 a.m. to noon, the volunteers from VMware led by Guruprasad Cashikar slaved under the hot sun doing each one of these with great cheer even though sweat dripped from their faces. They finished all the chores assigned to them but there's still more to do.

More volunteers are welcome!  

March against excess plastic

The EMPRI office at Doresanipalya Forest Campus was abuzz from 8 a.m. on Tuesday, 14th March 2017. EMPRI staff, researchers, citizen activists, representatives from BBMP, Hasiru Dala,  workers and rag pickers, all wearing black Tee shirts waited for the signal to start off a procession. The message was simple but vital -  Say no to Plastic. 

Roping in a few residents from the area, we from PNLIT were also a part of the procession shouting slogans and walking from EMPRI Office towards our Puttenahalli Lake. It drizzled. People on the road took shelter and listened to our slogans as we marched on. More people joined en route and by the time we reached the lake a good 45 minutes later, we were over 180! 

We took the volunteers to the two places in the lake premises with the maximum plastic waste - on either side of the slum. Everyone started removing the plastic bags, gutka satchets and other odds and ends which over time would have done irreparable damage to the ground below. 

While the rag pickers and BBMP staff were impressed with how clean the rest of the lake was, EMPRI Director, Mr. Vinaya Kumar and his colleagues were appreciative of how the lake looked - water rippling, the birds so engrossed in feeding and swimming. They were so full of appreciation of our floating wetlands that Mr. Vinaya Kumar wanted to meet our gardeners, who make the platforms. He listened keenly as Jayanna and Ramu explained to him in detail and complimented them. 

By 11 a.m. everyone gathered at and outside the Gazebo. Mr. Basavaraj, Head, Training, EMPRI thanked everybody for their participation.

Puttenahalli Lake was their first venue to promote awareness of the hazards of using plastic. We hope to reinforce this with greater vigour not just at the lake premises but in the locality as well. If you would like to join us in this campaign, please email . We need to eradicate this evil before it finishes us off! 

Plastic waste management event at the lake by EMPRI

The Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute, Bengaluru is organising an event tomorrow, 14th March to promote awareness of the deep environment hazards caused by our use of plastic. 

The programme will begin at 8 a.m. at the EMPRI office at 'Hasiru Bhavana', Doresanipalya Forest Campus, Vinayakanagara Circle, J.P. Nagar 5th Phase (http://empri.kar.nic.in/Contact_us.asp). Everyone assembled will go in a jatre to our Puttenahalli Lake where they will collect any plastic waste and then disperse by 11 a.m. 

We request you to join this much needed campaign and do your bit to save the environment. You could join at 8 a.m. at the EMPRI office or at the lake at 10 a.m.