JOIN USThe Bangalore's skies on Thursday were not clear. It was filled with rumours and all sorts of tales, apart from smoke and burnt grass especially in south- east Bangalore.
The ASC Centre and College with the defence, on Thursday morning, had set ablaze the dry wild grass in a part of its premises. This controlled burning, according to the defence officials, is a routine procedure and is done annually to ensure that miscreants do not set the entire area on fire.
When this was done, the smoke along with the ash flew around some parts of the City and people panicked.
Rain
They started spreading the news of ash rain happening in the City. This information was also posted on various social networking sites and went viral by afternoon. Many even posted photographs of dry burnt grass fallen on the rooftops of residential and commercial areas in and around Indiranagar, Domlur and Koramanagala. Some even went to the extent of saying that there were a new species of birds hovering in Bangalore’s skies.
Explanation
Some concerned citizens even called up the Indian Meteorological Department head office to report of ash rain. The IMD officials had a tough time explaining to people that there is no such ash rain and that it was just burnt grass and paper which flew along with the smoke to other surrounding places. Thus there is nothing to worry.But environmentalists raise the question of air pollution. They point that Bangalore air is already polluted due to vehicles and construction. Such sort of burning, will just worsen and ambient air quality. But defence officials say that this is a part of the security exercise and happens only once a year.