Kolleru

History of Kolleru Lake:

Kolleru is one of the largest shallow fresh water lake in Asia which is located between the delta of Krishna & Godavari river in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It receives water from four rivers, namely Budameru, Ramileru, Tammileru and Errakalva and 18 drains. This lake empties its water into the Bay of Bengal, every 6 months through an outlet called ‘Upputeru’.The lake serves as a natural flood balancing reservoir for the two rivers and has sustained the rich native flora and fauna as well as the people living around it.It used to be an ideal habitat to hundreds of species of birds including migratory birds, 63 species of fishes, fresh water turtles and amphibians etc. and world's one of the very few breeding sites of Grey Pelican. Recognizing the rich bio diversity of Kolleru lake it was listed as a wetland of International importance in the Ramsar Convention in 1971. The Government of Andhra Pradesh also declared the Lake up to +5 contour as Wild Life Sanctuary vide GO MS 120 dated 4.10.99.

However, the lake suffered from the unsatisfied greed of the moneyed people and selfish interests of mankind exploited the lake's integrity and thousands of fish tanks have been dug thus effectively converting the lake into a drain. This had impact in terms of gross pollution in this area leading to even difficulty in getting drinking water for the local people,impact on livelihoods of poor people, increased incidence of diseases in this region and as per technical experts the fear that 20 years down the line the area may be inhospitable for human beings to survive.These impacts are besides the loss of ecological diversity and intrusion of sea water into the land mass and its fallout in terms of adverse influence on rainfall pattern in this region of the country. Also adversely effected was the lacs of acres of crops in the upper reaches of sanctuary in view of stoppages of water flow into the sea because of obstruction by bunds of these illegal fish tanks.