Toxins, sewage led to fishkill in Bellandur Lake: NGT panel

Members of a committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) inspected the downstream areas of Bellandur Lake on Friday following complaints of fishkill there.

The committee, headed by former Lokayukta Justice (retired) Santosh Hegde, received more than 60 complaints from local residents in the last few days. Most of the complaints were about a foul smell emanating from the lake while some pertained to drops in daily fish catch as well as fishkill.

During the visit, the committee found that the heavy inflow of sewage water from the ST Bed area during the rainfall last week had contaminated the lake water.

"We verified that the foul smell was due to the death of fish in the Bellandur channel. The heavy rain has brought more sewage and industrial effluents to the lake. The fish from upstream areas could not survive the toxic environment and died," said T V Ramachandra, a professor at the IISc and a member of the committee.