Lake walk around Thane aims to raise awareness about water bodies

A couple of months ago a closed group of people were invited on a lake walk around Thane We were one of the participants The exercise was aimed at raising awareness about making these water bodies more accessible to the public and highlighting how a number of factors have created a situation where people need to take the onus on reclaiming their natural wonder Now that same walk is open for anyone to join in And those who attend it will leave with an understanding of how urbanisation is one of the reasons behind the changing landscape of the city of lakesA Thane lake that has been encroachedTake Desai Lake for instance where we stopped for refreshments It is located beside Ghodbunder Road which connects the satellite city to Mumbai Decades ago before motorised vehicles clogged up the roads people would travel to and fro on bullock carts taking a muchneeded break beside the lake to recharge their batteries But we found the surrounding area to be a busy junction today chocabloc with shops and cars destroying the erstwhile tranquillity The water body is under the aegis of the Thane Municipal Corporation TMC at present And the authorities have made some effort to retain the sense of restfulness that it provided But constructing seating areas on a concrete embankment has its own set of problems For a lake mdash left to itself mdash builds its own ecosystem where birds for example come to feast on the insects they find in the mud next to the water And bricks and mortar put that natural evolution under threatParticipants at a walk organised by TalavBuilding hurdlesYet such is the rate at which builders are taking over the growing needs of habitation in Thane that the TMC is compelled to take them on board when protecting the citys lakes The worry however is that most of these builders come from outside Thane and lack a connect with the water bodies says Mayuresh Bhadsavle who will conduct the walk this weekendBhadsavle is a part of Talav or Transforming and Appropriating Lakes through Activism and Volunteerism As the name suggests its an organisation that seeks public participation and works hand in hand with the TMC to ensure that the areas lakes remain the sort of place that bullock cart drivers once found solace in He tells us over the phone The three major concerns that we at Talav have are that one the beautification taking place is not participatory Secondly the people who are a part of the beautification are not the real stakeholders since they are not from Thane And finally even after a lake is revived it isnt made accessible to everyone For example were any of the lakes you visited disabledfriendlyMayuresh Bhadsavle conducts a walk in ThaneThey were not and nor were the five lakes we stopped at during the threehour walk open to the public all day But theres another major concern Bhadsavle adds Most of the lakes that are being picked for revival are near upcoming housing projects since builders want to use them as a USP to advertise their plots This is true for Mumbra and Ghodbunder too two other places where Talav plans to organise similar walks in the future The builders take permission from the TMC to beautify these lakes But then they construct gardens around them and keep them accessible only to residents from their complexes So the water body isnt open to the public any longer And on top of that another apprehension we have is that there are many smaller lakes that are not being revived as a process Hence they are becoming even smaller Bhadsavle lamentsWater frontThe moot point then is that the civic corporation private builders and the people of Thane need to join hands if they are to protect one of the citys biggest highlights mdash its water bodies We had visited Utsa Lake once our walk was over It had seemed to us that all the people over there were picnicking while on holiday when most of them were actually from the city itself such was the magical energy of the place Yet unless a systematic process is put into place a day might come when Utsa too becomes as dry as cracked farmland during a season of droughtON March 4 8 amMEETING POINT Shaheed Udyan Panchpakadi Thane CALL 9930086252COST Rs 650Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates