Bengaluru: A day after massive fire broke out at the Bellandur lake in Bengaluru, stunned citizens have lashed out at the government by putting up angry posts for its failure to protect the lakes.
Several Bengalureans took to social media platforms to express their anger following toxic smoke and fire at the lake which is once again in news for all the wrong reasons.
One of the Bengalureans, Harshavardhan Sinha tweeted, “Delhi you can’t even burn crackers. Look at us in Bangalore, ‘We Burn Lakes!’ Bellandur lake on fire AGAIN.” Another Twitter user commented, “That isn’t a nuclear mushroom. Its namma Bellandur Lake when it went up in flames.”
Another user Gaurav Solanki expressed his anger over fire at the lake by mentioning Prime Minister Modi in his tweet. “Sir, please look into the serious issue of Bengaluru lakes, city is losing its beauty bcz of money, illegal construction and corrupt politicians. If you don’t beleive me watch Bellandur lake video, it was set on fire due to chemicals dumped in it,” he tweeted. Another user Annu Kaushik said, “This is new year Bengaluru style. Others may burn crackers but we would have a lake on fire.”
A stand-up comedian from Bengaluru Dr. Jagadish Chaturvedi tweeted, “That moment when the song ‘tip tip barsa pani, pani mein aag lagaa de’ becomes a reality. Curious question-If a lake is on fire, do you throw more water at it to stop the fire? How does one stop fire on water?”
It may be recalled that on January 19 afternoon, a massive fire broke out at Bengaluru’s 1000-acre Bellandur lake, infamous for pollution and toxic foam. More than 5,000 army personnel and fire personnel brought the fire under control that raged for seven hours.
Bellandur lake was in news last August, when it spewed out so much toxic foam leaving residents living nearby stay indoors.
The National Green Tribunal had directed the Karnataka government to fix the lakes last year but there has been no solution yet. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) which is the custodian of the lakes, has been working to remove weeds and is using high-power pumps and coir foam mattresses and other filtering techniques to stop the frothing, but to little impact. Experts from Britain and Israel have visited to study the problem and they say that the solution is simple-stop pouring pollutants into the lakes.
Bellandur Lake, the largest of the 262 lakes and tanks in Bengaluru, receives about 40 percent of the city’s sewage. The Environment Ministry had said in 2016 that everyday about 1,280 million litres of sewage is generated in Bengaluru, while the city’s infrastructure has the capacity to handle only 721 million litres of sewage. Since 137 out of 500 sewage treatment plants are defunct, only 600 million litres sewage is treated and the rest goes to the lakes. The central government had in April 2016, said that it would invest Rs 800 Crore to rejuvenate the lakes in Bengaluru, especially the Bellandur Lake.
