Sacrificing power for water

Bangalore has always been a city plagued by water shortage. Though the city generally receives abundant rains and the rainy season is fairly extended, there is practically no scientific large scale retention of water.

Bangalore is also one of the few cities that has two clear cut rainy seasons-the primary of south west monsoon from June to September and the north east or secondary monsoon from November to December. The average rainfall in Bangalore is 859 mm.

Besides, the summers-March-April and May-are generally moderated by fairly frequent thunderstorms and intermittent rains. The heaviest rainfall recorded in a 24-hour period is 179 millimetres (7.0 in) on October, 1997.

Yet, these flattering statistics do not mean much as water supply has always been a problem in and to Bangalore. For decades, Bangalore has not been able to completely meet the water needs of its residents.

However, this year the water crisis is likely to be more pronounced. The Cauvery verdict restricts the amount of water that the State can draw from Cauvery for providing drinking water to Bangalore. Moreover, tanks, lakes and other water bodies have run dry and the water availability in borewells have depleted.

Bangalore today needs  600 cusecs of water per day or the total water supply per day is put at 950 million litres per day. The per capita water supply is 147 litres per day.

Much of Bangalore’s water needs is met from the Cauvery. Earlier, TG Halli added to the water supply but today it adds to the water woes as it is almost dry.  
Supposing that the monsoon sets in on time in June, Bangalore requires till May end 3.6 tmc ft water just to meet its drinking water needs. Now the question is where is Bangalore going to get its water.

Hesarghatta has completely dried, TG hall has stopped pumping and more water cannot be lifted from the Cauvery.  Hence, the State has to supply water to Bangalore from some of the reservoirs such as KRS, Hemavathi, Harangi and Kabini.

The live storage above sill level at KRS is 4.553 tmc ft, at Hemavathi it is 4.289 tmc ft,  Harangi 5.37 tmc and the live storage above sill level at Kabini is zero.
Since this limited the option of the State Government, it did the next best thing. It ordered mini hydel stations to stop generating electricity and ordered that the water held in the power stations could be used for meting Bangalore’s growing thirst for water.
Thus, we had the Minister for Energy and Bangalore Water Supply, S. Suresh Kumar, directing the Energy department and the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam to stop power generation at four mini hydel plants.
Following the directive,  power generation has stopped at Shiva Balancing Reservoir (SBR), which had reached 3.34 feet (minus 40 inches) last week. Since then, Bangalore has been receiving water from the Shiva Balancing Reservoir.
The Shimsha power unit too has gone silent and its waters are being diverted to Bangalore. The two private power generating companies at Madhavamantri and Satyagala barrage too have been asked to stop power supply and instead divert water to Bangalore.
Both Madhavamantri and Satyagala together produced  0.7 MW of power were using water from the upstream of the river course.
Their practice of storing water and using it later had caused imbalance in the flow to Shiva Balance Reservoir (SBR).
Similarly, the Shiva and the Shimsha power plants used water that  would flow down to the river after power generation. These plants generated less than one per cent of the total power generated in State. However, they used nearly 50 cusecs of water which otherwise could be used for drinking water supply.
The Government has set up a vigilance committee comprising the heads of these departments as well as deputy commissioners of Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagar to ensure smooth flow of water along the river course and to keep a tab  on unauthorised drawing of water.
The committee has also been told to ensure that water is not used for power generation or irrigation activities for now. Thus, Bangaloreans should thanks the stars for getting exclusive water

The Indian Robin Hood and his fort

Trekking and Weekend Getaways

Situated less tan a hundred kilometers from Bangalore, this fort is more known for its water harvesting techniques than its history. The fort was built by a local Palegar who is popularly known as the Robin Hood of India.

This Robin Hood robbed the rich to help the poor and his generosity was legendary. Though he ruled for a very short time, he is credited with having built the fort and also a tank. He also contributed to the water harvesting techniques and mind you this was way back in the 16th century.

The Robin Hood became so notorious over a period of time that he came to be known among the rich as “Havali” or menace. Today, the fort and the town stand a mute witness to the bygone era when the fort as a citadel of  impregnable symbol.

If the fort has such an interesting history, the town too has an equally interesting story. It gets its name from a cave temple hewn out a huge rock. The rock in Kannada is called Bande and the temple is known as Gudi. Combine both the word and you get the fort town of Gudibande.

The fort and the town of Gudibande is in Chikaballapur district and it is just 92 kms from Bangalore. This town has everything you could wish for. It is hikers paradise and a trekker’s challenge. It has a fort and temples apart from caves. What is more it would interest an engineer on how men four hundred years ago designed water harvesting structures.        

The fort was built by Byre Gowda, the Robin Hood of Gudibande. The fort lies on a conical hill which rises to more than 1100 feet  and there is huge lake below which looks like a map of India when seen from above. There are temples carved from rocks and boulders.

Byre Gowda ruled over Gudibande and surrounding areas for three years from 1645 AD to 1648 AD but he left his mark behind. He became such a terror to the rich that they called him “Havali”  Byre Gowda.  

Gudibande is famous not only for the fort but also several boulders and rocks. There is a cave temple within one such boulder and this has given the town its name of Gudibande. The cave is atop the Narasimhaswamy Temple. Move a little away from the cave and you come to the hill with the fort.

The big granite hill is steep and its slopes are slippery. The steps to the hill are wide and well cut in the beginning but they narrow down as you go up and become very shallow.

The imposing fort which is more than 400 years old blends with the hill and appears massive. When constructed the fort had seven gates but today most of them are missing or in ruins. The first gate that you see was originally the fourth. This gate leads to a small field with a ruined hall-like structure. The is entrance leads to a small field with a dilapidated mantap. The second gate is star-shaped and it has openings for guns on  its walls. There is a cave formed between two massive boulders.

There fort is full of natural ponds and water bodies. There is an escape route for the Palegar and soldiers to take in case of enemy attack. The route s through boulders and rough paths.

The next gate leads to rooms which at one time were occupied by guards. The penultimate gate leads to a large area with bastions at its corners. Beware, this is the favourite haut of monkeys Steer clear of them.

A trail between two colossal rocks leads to the top. There is a  large rectangular mantapa here which is where prisoners were kept. The temple dedicated to Shiva here is one of the 108 Jyotirlingas. This temple has been recently renovated. This is also called the Rameshwara temple, Nearby is the temple of Parvati Devi.

A majority of the visitors to the temple are from Gudibande as it is not known to outsiders.

Look around you and you can see the Byrasagara lake at the base of the hill. This was built by Byre Gowda and from the hill top it looks like the map of India. The water body is also called Amani Byrasagara. 

However, the water channel system devised by Byre Gowda and his successors was unique. It linking nineteen water bodies and tanks called dhones and they could in all hold nearly 3 lakhs litres of rain water.
Unfortunately, many of the channels and ponds have eroded over time. An NGO, Vivekananda Yuvaka Sangha, has taken up a project to restore the system.
The historic Surasadmagiri hill is situated nearby. Gudibande has two temples built by the Cholas. One is the temple of  Lakshmi Venkataramana Swamy and another is of Adinarayanaswamy.  The Gayatri Mandira here is said t be the first ever established. Gayatri is the second wife of Brahma.

The hills near Ellodu village in Gudibande taluk is famous for its “Queen Rose” granite rocks which is mined by the State Government.

Gudibande is so well-known I do not think it is necessary to give directions.