The River today
Before Bengaluru turned to the Cauvery for water, it depended on the Arkavathi. A monsoon-fed seasonal river, she was an important source of water for the city. The Hesaraghatta and Thippagondanahalli reservoirs built across her supplied Bengaluru with water for decades.
Today, the Arkavathi is a shadow of the river she once was. She is a “ghost river.”
Mostly dry in her upper stretches, water remains largely in the tanks and reservoirs built along her course. Further downstream, she reappears upstream of the Thippagondanahalli reservoir. Not with her natural flows but increasingly with treated and untreated wastewater from Bengaluru and surrounding towns. After the Vrishabhavathi joins her, the Arkavathi carries significant flows through much of the year before eventually joining the Cauvery.
But the story of the Arkavathi is not only about what has been lost.
Her river system still connects tributaries, reservoirs, lakes, streams and landscapes across a large and rapidly changing basin. Understanding these connections can help us see what has changed, where the pressures are and what it will take to bring the river back to a healthier state.
To reimagine a healthier future for the Arkavathi, we need to look at her river system as a whole – tributaries, reservoirs, drainage network, towns, industries and the landscapes through which she flows.
