ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified: database configuration does not specify adapter

I need help in debuging this error:

ActiveRecord::AdapterNotSpecified: database configuration does not specify adapter on /.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p448/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activerecord-3.2.21/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:49:in `resolve_hash_connection'

This error is generated after I run the following rake task:

bundle exec rake myapi:populate_terminals RAILS_ENV=development

require 'active_record'
require 'yaml'


namespace :myapi do
  task :populate_terminals do
    files= %w(terminal lodge lodge/term)
    files.each{ |f| require "#{ rails_root }/app/models/#{ f }" }

    Terminal.populate
  end
end

the error occurs in the 'establish_connection' line of lodge.rb

require 'net/http'
module Lodge

  #Parent class for Lodge models
  class Lodge::Base < ActiveRecord::Base


     establish_connection "lodge_#{Rails.env}"

  end
end

This is how my database.yml file looks like:

development:
  adapter: oracle_enhanced
  username: ****
  password: ****
  database: ****

lodge_development:
  adapter: oracle_enhanced
  database: ***
  username: ***
  password: ***

I did a binding.pry to make sure what lodge_#{Rails.env} returns and it seems to return the correct environment:

lodge_development

now I tried to debug bit more and print outed some variables from activerecord-3.2.21/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:49

def resolve_string_connection(spec) # :nodoc:
      hash = configurations.fetch(spec) do |k|
        connection_url_to_hash(k)
      end
      p configurations
      p spec
      raise(AdapterNotSpecified, "#{spec} database is not configured") unless hash

      resolve_hash_connection hash
    end

    def resolve_hash_connection(spec) # :nodoc:
      spec = spec.symbolize_keys

      puts "#{spec.inspect} ------------>"
      raise(AdapterNotSpecified, "database configuration does not specify adapter") unless spec.key?(:adapter)
      .
      .
    end

I got the following output:

    '{}'

"ltv_development" {:database=>"ltv_development"} ------------>

I also did a bundle to make sure the appropriaate gems are installed.

I am kind of baffled and not sure how to proceed forward.