The tropical land–water-scape of India shapes every settlement through lakes, ponds, wetlands, and rivers. Mysuru (Mysore) is a city profoundly shaped by both natural and humanly constructed water systems. For generations, it has carried a collective identity tied to the seasonal rhythms of the monsoon, the life-giving presence of the Cauvery and Kabini rivers, and the intricate network of lakes and ponds that dot the cityscape. Water transcends being merely a resource; it is part of collective memory, embedded in place names, agricultural heritage, and the very land beneath our feet. In an era of rapid urbanization and climate-induced land–water transformations, understanding this profound relationship with the land–water-scape is strategic for sustainability, resilience, and even survival.
The historical network of lakes, wetlands, and nālas (water channels) constitutes a vital “water common.” This water common is a shared living ecosystem and infrastructure that has been disintegrated through the process of urban development. Siloed planning approaches and the tendency to equate development with indiscriminate concretization have disrupted the interconnectedness of water systems that were sustained for centuries as commons by local communities. Reclaiming the water commons by reintegrating the remaining land–water-scapes (often referred to as blue and green spaces in planning discourse) into the urban fabric is a crucial step towards a sustainable, resilient, equitable, and culturally rooted future.
The Living Fabric: Mysuru’s Historical Water-Based Urbanism
Mysuru’s enduring urban form evolved in synergy with natural land–water-scapes and the engineering ingenuity of earlier periods. Settlement growth was woven into a unique ecological fabric, creating a pattern inherently responsive to regional climate and resources. Mysuru exemplifies cities as expressions of their geography. Nestled on the Southern Karnataka Plateau, the settlement occupies an undulating tableland defined by its relationship with the Cauvery–Kabini river basins. The Mysore Census Report (2011) identifies the Cauvery and its major tributary, the Kabini, as the region’s lifeblood. For centuries, the city’s growth was guided by these water systems. The gentle slopes of the plateau were harnessed to engineer a cascading network of lakes and tanks that captured monsoon rains, recharged groundwater, and irrigated farmlands—what we now recognize as a traditional water-harvesting system.
These water commons were envisioned as engineering marvels by the erstwhile rulers and sustained through community-based water management principles. For instance, Maharani Kempananjammanni Devi (Vani Vilas Sannidhana), the erstwhile regent of Mysore (1895–1902), is celebrated for water-harvesting initiatives such as the Cauvery River project and the Vani Vilasapura Dam, undertaken to support farming and combat drought. This historical water-based urbanism remains evident in the city’s landscape and in the local language of the community. Census records list village names such as Siriyurunala and Tharikalnala, directly referencing nālas—natural drainage channels that once connected wetlands, lakes, and tanks. This network functioned as a circulatory system for the landscape, carrying monsoon waters rich in nutrients, seeds, and biodiversity, and binding the city into a web of life. These blue–green corridors acted as water carriers and as biodiversity-supporting, climate-regulating, and livelihood-sustaining backbones for the region.
The Great Disruption: Urbanization and the Fracturing of Ecological Networks
Like most Indian cities, rapid urbanization driven by economic pressures, disconnected planning, and fragmented growth has increasingly threatened Mysuru’s ecological foundations. The city’s expansion has fractured the interconnected water systems that long defined its character and resilience. Studies confirm a direct relationship between increasing urban sprawl and environmental vulnerability, alongside social–ecological challenges faced in everyday urban life.
A significant loss of green cover within the Local Planning Area due to urban expansion, along with encroachments into protected zones such as the Chamundi Hill region, is evident. These pressures are further compounded by the filling of wetlands, lakes, tanks, and nālas, resulting in a severe disconnection between water bodies and their catchments. The nālas—natural drainage channels—have been among the most severely impacted. Severed from their sources, nālas have either been reduced to mere conduits for wastewater or erased entirely under layers of concrete to make way for roads and real estate. The extent of damage is so profound across the country that the term nāla now commonly refers only to wastewater drains, even in official documents, reinforcing the prejudice that they are degraded spaces best managed through concretization and covering.
In an urban organism, drains function like a nervous system and water bodies like vital organs. Today, this system stands irreversibly damaged, stripped of its ecological designation in planning processes and reduced to wastelands for wastewater disposal. This degradation extends beyond environmental loss; it represents a deep socio-cultural rupture. As physical distance from healthy ecosystems increased, so too did the psychological and emotional distance within communities. Water commons that are no longer accessible, and streams that have disappeared from view, have also vanished from collective memory, contributing to the present-day disconnect between communities, nature, and culture. The loss of water heritage is thus also a loss of cultural heritage, buried beneath concrete.
Collective action around shared water commons has been replaced by competition over access to water, with distribution divided along lines of class, caste, and gender. Water governance has shifted towards the governmentalization of water, and further towards its privatization, pushing city-society towards a state of water bankruptcy and deepening water and equity crises. Much of today’s water crises—manifesting as floods, droughts, and unequal access to water and sanitation—are manufactured outcomes of the dismantling, governmentalization, and privatization of water commons.
Reclaiming the Commons: Water as a Medium for a Climate-Resilient Future
With the intensifying climate crisis, it is now an established fact that the climate crisis is fundamentally a water crisis. Mysuru is already experiencing its impacts through water shortages driven by low levels in the Cauvery and Kabini rivers, overexploitation of groundwater, rapid urban expansion consuming blue and green spaces, and systematic reclamation and illegal encroachment of water bodies. Yet, the very water systems fragmented by urbanization hold the key to a more climate-resilient and livable future. Reintegrating Mysuru’s water commons into urban planning offers a forward-looking strategy for climate adaptation, ecological restoration, and the enrichment of public life.
Restored water systems can become dynamic catalysts for urban rejuvenation, both physically and psychologically. Concepts such as Sustainable City Strategies and Sponge Cities demonstrate how blue–green infrastructure—rain gardens, bioswales, and other nature-based solutions—can manage monsoon runoff, recharge groundwater, mitigate urban heat, and support biodiversity. Once revitalized, lakes and nālas must function as accessible commons, or common-pool resources. Waterscapes can enhance neighborhood public spaces, offering daily opportunities for citizens to connect with nature while supporting public health, social cohesion, and climate resilience.
Ethics of Care for the City: Conversations Towards Re-commoning the Water Commons
The challenges of water scarcity, ecological degradation, and social inequity are deeply interconnected and demand systems-based responses grounded in long-term stewardship. Systemic gaps in how cities are planned, governed, and valued lie at the core of these problems and continue to shape planning processes. In India, planning remains largely confined to political and economic considerations, manifested through land valuation and development priorities. To build a regenerative future, Mysuru must move beyond fragmented and extractive planning approaches. Conventional planning has created a false separation between the “urban” and the “natural.” An ecofeminist perspective offers one pathway forward by challenging this binary, recognizing the interdependence of human and ecological well-being, and foregrounding ethics of care rooted in collective responsibility and shared stewardship.
Mysuru, with its rich water history, can rework its relationship with water systems by shifting perspectives—most importantly, by re-commoning the water commons. The city’s historic network of nālas offers a powerful opportunity to put this approach into practice. One such corridor is the Purnaiah Nāla. Once a connector of lakes and landscapes, it now reflects the impacts of neglect and fragmented governance, while still holding potential as a continuous blue–green spine. The nāla can serve as both a pilot and a lens to study how different urban conditions interact with water and natural systems, and how context-sensitive strategies can emerge from within the system itself.
Restoration approaches must embrace social–ecological–technical frameworks that allow space for research, dialogue, and co-creation. Engaging residents in mapping and revitalization processes can rebuild ecological literacy and foster shared ownership.
There is need a to rethink how water systems are understood, cared for, and integrated into everyday life, and ensure that Mysuru’s future flows through healthy, accessible, and resilient lakes, streams, and green spaces is a shared responsibility. There should be a beginning of deeper conversations, collective stewardship, and renewed commitment to placing water commons at the heart of the city’s future.
One must seek to rebuild indigenous knowledge systems alongside contemporary tools, thoughts, and techniques to work towards re-commoning the water commons of Mysuru.
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Prajna Kumaraswamy is an architect, urban designer, and multidisciplinary artist from Mysuru, India pursuing a Double Master’s in Urban Design and Sustainable Revitalisation from Germany (Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg) and Egypt (Cairo University and Alexandria University).
Dr Mansee Bal Bhargava is an entrepreneur, researcher, educator, speaker, and mentor; more about her at: https://uol.de/icbm/geooekologie/mitarbeiter, www.wforw.in, www.edc.org.in, www.mansee.in, www.woder.org.
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