Making Space in a Megacity - The Evolving Stewardship of Bangalore’s Urban Lakes

Abstract: For centuries, in the river-less landscape of Bangalore water supply was ensured by harvesting monsoon rains in a series of hydrologically connected man-made lakes. Traditionally, these lakes were constructed and maintained by surrounding agricultural communities who acted as local stewards. However, in the last sixty years, due to rapid urbanization, the disappearance of agricultural activities and the centralization of lake governance, an estimated eight hundred of Bangalore’s lakes have been converted to other land uses and many of those that remain are highly polluted. In reaction to this, citizens concerned about environmental degradation have pushed for permission to engage in lake management. As a result, the governance of certain lakes now includes both government actors and lake groups made up of local residents working to maintain and protect their neighbourhood lakes. This thesis presents five lake groups that have successfully helped revive their local lakes and uses semi-structured interviews and sense of place surveys to illustrate the links between prolonged engagement in stewardship, ecosystem changes, shifting perceptions of place meanings and growth in place attachment. By using insights from place-making research the study also examines the groups’ contribution to the quality of their local lakes as inclusive public spaces, which in a city of stark socioeconomic contrasts are required to service both the provisioning needs of the urban poor as well as the recreational uses of a growing middle-class. Findings suggest that regular engagement in placebased stewardship can cultivate a social-ecological approach to ecosystem governance over time by allowing stewards build local ecological knowledge and engage with the varied needs and interests of their communities.