It was after he accidentally fell into Kyalasanahalli Lake near his office in 2017 that Anand Malligavad started on the work that has made him India’s best known expert on restoring lakes. When he told his company the next day that he would restore the polluted 36-acre lake if it funded the project, they laughed at him. But having since gone on to restore 35 lakes in Bengaluru which collectively hold 106 million gallons of water, seven in Ayodhya, nine in Lucknow, and 40 water bodies in Odisha, no one laughs any more. 

Starting 1,500 years ago, the Chola dynasty built and maintained a self-sustaining network of irrigation lakes across the Deccan Plateau to make up for the lack of rivers. Bengaluru was once called the city of 1,000 lakes. But as it became India’s Silicon Valley, the man-made lakes that provided water for agriculture and drinking were filled in and canals leading to lakes were covered over. The growing water crisis is a direct result of dried up and choked lakes, experts say.