Bellandur, Varthur lakes can be revived in 18 months: Study

Is it possible to restore the city’s biggest, but highly polluted Bellandur and Varthur lakes?

A research team, headed by Dr TV Ramachandra of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, along with the local communities, has claimed that the two water bodies can be rejuvenated in 18 months and has urged the state government to make use of eco-battalion from the Indian Defence on the lines of the Army taking over Ganga clean-up mission.

During a presentation of the study report on the three-month exhaustive bathymetric survey here, Prof Ramachandra asked the local communities to be vigilant and create a movement to exert pressure on the government to restore the lakes.

He wanted all those who contributed for the pollution pay for the restoration work. “The BWSSB, the industries and the polluters, who are responsible for releasing domestic waste and other effluents to the lakes, should pay for restoration work. The government should ensure at least 15% of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds from the companies, which are around the lake, are set aside to rejuvenate the lake,” he said.

Giving examples of how vegetables and fish grown in the dirty water are becoming part of the food chain without control, he said that every resident of Bengaluru should be part of the restoration process before the number of cases related to illness, including kidney failure, goes up further.

He said he had seen people coming in posh cars and throwing garbage into the lakes when the team was engaged in the research work. They had no awareness on environment protection, he observed.

Elaborating on the proposed rejuvenation process, he spoke of the removal of all the encroachments of rajakaluve and lakebed, mapping of water body boundary, buffer and valley zones, besides setting up a sewage treatment plant (STP) based on Jakkur model.