Bangalore-The rains and a history of urban flooding

The recent floods in Uttarakand and other parts of north India, particularly Himachal Pradesh, and years ago in north Karnataka has once again turned the focus on the lack of preparedness of the Governments, both State and Centre and the agencies in dealing with such disasters.

While the defence forces acted with alacrity and dedication, the government, bureaucracy and even local people were found wanting. If the Government and bureaucracy vanished along with the floods, a handful of local people turned parasites and grave diggers, robbing the pilgrims and leaving them at the mercy of  a raging Nature.

While there is no possibility of what happened in Uttarakand taking place in Bangalore, there is little doubt that time is running pout for Bangalore as the powers that be continue to play a game of blind date with Nature.

The politicians, bureaucracy and even the Government has either turned a blind eye or covertly backed encroachment of  forests and grasslands, mine river beds for sand and block natural flow of water.

In Bangalore, there has been massive  and repeated deluge of water from the drains almost every time it rains and the reason is not far to seek, Rampant encroachment, mushrooming illegal layouts, wanton destruction of green cover, throwing filth and debris in rain water drains and blocking it in several places by building structures have led to a situation where even a small shower leads to roads being clogged with water.

However, flooding of Bangalore is not a new phenomenon. Contrary to popular perception, flooding in Bangalore is more than a century old. The first such recorded incident of what is now better known as urban flooding occurred exactly a century ago. It was during the monsoon season of 1912 and Bangalore then had been seeing a particularly wet spell.

It was September 28, and Bangalore that day saw very heavy rains. While the damage in Cantonment was not all that high, houses in Siddikatte (now City Market) and the petes of Bangalore, including Ranasinghpet and Gundopant Street were completely flooded and the waters entered houses and shops, leaving people stranded in knee deep water.

With the rains leaving a trail of  destruction, old Bangalore or the Pettah town looked like a war ravaged city. The then Municipality then swung into action almost immediately and decided to provide food and shelter first to the people.

Interestingly, one of the members of the then municipality was Puttanna Chetty, who later became its president. Sir M. Visvesvara9iah had just taken over as Dewan of Mysore State.

The Municipality realized that the entire infrastructure in the city was almost in shambles. The roads were completely inundated with water and drains were overflowing. Low lying areas were completely flooded and scores of people were marooned.

The municipality shifted the people to choultries and kalyana mantapas and organized food and medicine for the inmates. those associated with the civic administration of the city. The municipality also helped the inmates get their valuables and other necessities from the houses.

To prevent looting and robbery, the municipality took the help of police and posted guards in several areas. The rain havoc was so much that the municipality had to open four choultries to house people and feed them.

The floods receded only after October 2, that is six days after heavy rains lashed Bangalore. The Municipality, on its own, decided to help people rebuild their houses and even offered sites at elevated places. Adequate compensation was give to those who lost their houses.

Bangalore then, the Pettah area, had a population of just about 1 lakhs and it spread over an area of a little over 10 square miles. The Cantonment or the Civil and Military Station was more populated and it was also spread put over a larger area.

Some of the people then blamed the then municipality for the floods. They complained that the first act of the Bangalore Municipality was to dry the moat around the old fort area and drain it of all water and convert it along with Siddikatte lake into house sites.

The residents then felt that the civic agency had also made mistake in allowing construction of houses on plots it sold adjacent to the  Dharmambudhi Tank in Majestic.   

Centuries later, the rains continue to plunge Bangalore into misery and the Bruthut Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) keeps on parroting the same line every year-there will be no flooding this year but this refrain sounds as hollow as ever as no steps have been taken to prevent flooding.

(This is the first in a series of articles on Urban Flooding and Bangalore. The sources of these series of articles are the records, chronicles and books of and on civic agencies themselves such as Central Water Commission (CWC), BBMP BDA, BWSSB, Urban Development Department and studies by IISc, IISEC, Bangalore University and other scientific and research institutions.)   

The lake of City Market

It is one of the most congested parts of Bangalore. It also has the maximum number of footfalls and it is surrounded by historical structures.

The locality boasts of  one of the oldest hospitals in the State and also one of the oldest markets. It was also home to one of the oldest cinema houses and several landmarks associated with Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan are located in the vicinity.

Just two centuries ago, this was the battlefield between Tipu Sultan and the British forces. It was also the place where the British forces camped in 1791 under Lord Cornwallis and took on Bahadur Khan, the Khiladar of Bangalore Fort.

This is also the place where Tipu’s artillery from within the fort rained rocket fire on the British who reported the first few such deaths in India. Cornwallis stormed the fort at midnight and this was against the rules of the war. Bahadur Khan was killed along with the other defenders.

Cornwallis was so impressed by the bravery of Bahadur Khan, he sent a message to Tipu asking for Khan’s body to be taken away with all honors due to a martyr. Tipu haughtily replied that the place where a martyr fell would be his final resting place. Cornwallis constructed a tomb in honour of Bahadur Khan. Today, the fort stands amid the ugly urban sprawl as do several localities that existed during the time of Tipu.

This is City Market, one of the most crowded localities of Bangalore and perhaps unfortunately labelled as the city’s dirtiest and most polluted place.

The market today is a urban planners nightmare. It has two busstands-one a Government bus stand and another a private one and both spill onto the adjoining roads. The KR Market is one of the busiest hubs of Bangalore and it is surrounded by wholesale dealers, markets and commercial complexes.

To add to the confusion, the Minot Eye Hospital, Victoria Hospital-which is one of the oldest in Bangalore-Vani Vilas Hospital–are located here.

But this urban nightmare is only a few decades old.

This place was once a vast plain with a small bur beautiful lake and it was sandwiched between two forts. Yes, Bangalore had two forts and today only one-the City Market fort exists. The vast expanse between the two forts was used as a market place and it was called Siddi Katte.

When Kempe Gowda built the Bangalore fort, he devised s series of tanks to supply water to his new city. One of the lakes he built at the present City Market-KR Market was called Siddikatte Lake. This lake was one of the many inner lakes that he had conceived to store and provide water to the several petes he founded such as Akki Pet, Bale Pet, Upparpet.

The tank owes its origin to Siddi, a member of Kempe Gowda family.

The tank was not very big but it was interconnected to other “inner” water bodies that Kempe Gowda built including the Karanji lake at Gandhi Bazar. The Karanji lake abutted the Bugle Rock area and it covered what is today’s National College.

Apart from these inner lakes, Kempe Gowda commissioned the lakes in outlying areas to “catch” the water and store it for his people.

However, once Bangalore was taken over by the Wodeyars, the inner lakes slowly fell into disuse. The Siddikatte lake became only a small water body by the time Hyder appeared on the scene. There are enough records to indicate that Hyder used water from the Siddikatte to rebuild the mud fort with bricks and stone at City Market.

When the British moved in on Bangalore in 1791 during the Third Mysore war, Cornwallis halted here. He then planned the midnight attack when he could not breach the defences of this fort for a fortnight.

Soon after Tipu and British ceased hostilities, Tipu dismantled much of the Bangalore fort and the water body fell into complete disuse.

The tank “withered” in the latter part of 19th century and it was then transformed into a well-organised market known locally as Siddikatte Santhe. The santhe drew a large number of farmers and growers and this is how it became a hub of business, which it is even today. Siddi Katte was once inhabited by many Brahmin officials. Slowly, the development of the area saw the death of the residences and one building after another came up, displacing people and generating more traffic.

Today, Bangalore fort is surrounded by hospitals and bus stands. The KR market stands nearby, a testimony to the farsightedness of the Wodeyars.

The lake is completely gone and there is not even a trace of it. Only a few oldtimers vaguely remember the name of Siddikatte. Otherwise, City market-KR Market is a much reviled name and few Bangaloreans would venture to go there.

However, the City Market-KR Market area even today is the place where much of Bangalore’s history was made. The area around the fort was the place where Tipu had his rocket laboratories and factories and it was called Taramandalpet.

To cannons were recovered a few months ago when Metro work was being taken up in the area.