Sucheth,
Thanks for sharing this. A good article in Deccan Herald.

It is also a fact that the nature of grasslands vs forests/woody areas keep on changing over the years. When one looks at the images of the large african grasslands from the early days of photography, one realises that the composition changes. The changes by nature (not manmade) happen over a period of time. Fire can burn up large woody areas and they can get converted into grasslands or abundant rain followed by dispersal of seeds can help in forests increasing their area.

A similar situation is observed in our montane temperate forests or Shola forests where grasslands border the shola forests and their boundaries keep on changing. Some more details can be found here: http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/indi...vol-3-issue-i/

The grasslands have their own unique ecosystem with birds and bees and reptiles and insects. It is a fallacy to convert the natural grasslands into lawns and planting a few trees. It has to be remembered that due to their natural slope, the water flows through and gets collected in the ponds and lakes and in this case the Hessarghatta lake. Any digging and landscaping in the grasslands changes the undulations and results in water not able to flow. It leads to drying of our natural ponds and lakes.

The Hessarghatta misadventure should be stopped. The grassland has to remain in its natural state.
Sabyasachi