Articles by Usha Rajagopalan

With so many butterflies flocking to our Puttenahalli lake of late, it seems appropriate to get experts to identify them and take good pix of these fleeting, flighty beauties.      In June came Ms. Chinmayi, a lepidopterist from Banashankari and she photographed and identified quite a few of the butterflies. Read about her visit here.   Last week Dr. Kunal Angola and Naveen, research scholars from the Butterfly Park at Bannerghatta spent a good two hours at the lake. Their visit opened our eyes to more of these pretties.    Butterflies don't really need exotic plants. The common weed Tridax (Coat…

We have been inviting you to bring your family along for "weekend gardening" at the lake. Some of the volunteers this past weekend did just that!    Our regular volunteers Mithilesh and Chandrika, a young couple from 24th Main came with the former's mother and sister. Balakrishnan and his 10 year old son Girish; Regu and youngster Sanjay from Brigade Millennium, Shubha, son Sharad and daughter Ashraya from South City, Nagalakshmi and nephew Gautham from Puttenahalli joined other individual volunteers and together did a lot of work at the lake last Saturday and Sunday.    The tone was set on…

We have been inviting you to bring your family along for "weekend gardening" at the lake. Some of the volunteers this past weekend did just that!    Our regular volunteers Mithilesh and Chandrika, a young couple from 24th Main came with the former's mother and sister. Balakrishnan and his 10 year old son Girish; Regu and youngster Sanjay from Brigade Millennium, Shubha, son Sharad and daughter Ashraya from South City, Nagalakshmi and nephew Gautham from Puttenahalli joined other individual volunteers and together did a lot of work at the lake last Saturday and Sunday.    The tone was set on…

Bosch Volunteers at the lake Saturday, 22nd June 2013The volunteers who come to work at the lake have always impressed us with their dedication and hard labour. The group of 30 Bosch employees who came to Puttenahalli Lake this past Saturday was no less. After a brief introduction and welcome, they set to work in two teams as planters and diggers.    The planters had a short stretch of flower bed in which to plant Lantana. Nupur guided them on how to take out the plant out of the pot with its roots intact, planting it in the pit and packing the…

Bosch Volunteers at the lake Saturday, 22nd June 2013The volunteers who come to work at the lake have always impressed us with their dedication and hard labour. The group of 30 Bosch employees who came to Puttenahalli Lake this past Saturday was no less. After a brief introduction and welcome, they set to work in two teams as planters and diggers.    The planters had a short stretch of flower bed in which to plant Lantana. Nupur guided them on how to take out the plant out of the pot with its roots intact, planting it in the pit and packing the…

  It was one hectic morning for the twenty or more volunteers who came to the lake on 9th June, a Sunday. Coming from South City, Brigade Millennium, Brigade Gardenia, Ramaiah Apartments (behind Sobha Tulip), J.P. Nagar 7th Phase, 24th Main, etc., they reinforced the meaning of the "Neighbourhood" in our Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust. Meera coming from Banashankari extended the "neighourhood" some more! It is indeed incredible how concern about and involvement with the Puttenahalli Lake is bringing everybody together. Transporting the dead tree from South City to the lake bed proved this amply.   Four or five…

  It was one hectic morning for the twenty or more volunteers who came to the lake on 9th June, a Sunday. Coming from South City, Brigade Millennium, Brigade Gardenia, Ramaiah Apartments (behind Sobha Tulip), J.P. Nagar 7th Phase, 24th Main, etc., they reinforced the meaning of the "Neighbourhood" in our Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust. Meera coming from Banashankari extended the "neighourhood" some more! It is indeed incredible how concern about and involvement with the Puttenahalli Lake is bringing everybody together. Transporting the dead tree from South City to the lake bed proved this amply.   Four or five…

Without much fanfare but certainly with a great deal of hope today afternoon we released the Salvinia weevil in two spots at the lake still infested with Salvinia Molesta. Salvinia weevils from Thrissur Releasing the weevils, 3rd June 2013 From the time Dr. Subramanya, UAS, Bangalore identified it last September, this invasive fern has been the bane of our lake. When the water level receded to mere puddles, the Salvinia began to dry in large tracts. We got it removed manually through BBMP's workers. Very many resident volunteers living around the lake pitched in strongly on several weekends. When it seemed…

Without much fanfare but certainly with a great deal of hope today afternoon we released the Salvinia weevil in two spots at the lake still infested with Salvinia Molesta. Salvinia weevils from Thrissur Releasing the weevils, 3rd June 2013 From the time Dr. Subramanya, UAS, Bangalore identified it last September, this invasive fern has been the bane of our lake. When the water level receded to mere puddles, the Salvinia began to dry in large tracts. We got it removed manually through BBMP's workers. Very many resident volunteers living around the lake pitched in strongly on several weekends. When it seemed…

Several of the visitors to the lake, have marveled at how the level has gone up in just two or three days of pre-monsoon showers. The reason of course is that the rain has been heavy this year and more because, for the first time, some of the surface run off from the Brigade Millennium road is getting diverted into the lake through the new conduit. The story doesn't end here.Visitors would have seen the enormous iron frame that was getting assembled on the ground between the security cabin and the gazebo. Thick iron rods have been placed over the…