Thick smoke from Bellandur lake fire angers residents

Thick clouds of smoke enveloped the area around the Bellandur lake in east Bengaluru for a few hours after fire broke out at the highly polluted water body on Friday.

Local residents said that they noticed the fire around 12 noon in the middle of the lake, off National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), towards Yemalur. Soon the area was engulfed in thick smoke. Fire and Emergency Service personnel arrived around 1 pm but could not douse the flames as they were unable to reach the spot. 

Srinivas R, a resident of Yemalur said: "The smoke increased towards evening due to strong winds. There are a lot of factories which let chemicals into the lake. Due to this, methane gets accumulated in the lake water eventually resulting in a fire. This is not the first such incident at the Bellandur lake. We have seen many such cases in the past.”

 Residents of Yemalur and Ambedkar Nagar were affected by the smoke. A few locals claimed that some unidentified people might have set fire to the garbage dumped into the lake.

A fireman told Deccan Herald that the smoke reduced later in the evening and the situation is now under control.

When contacted, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) chairman Lakshman said officers from the Board visited the area. “They informed me that the fire broke out in an island in the lake area. Some farmers had apparently set fire to the dry grass near the lake.”
Lakshman said the BWSSB is likely to complete the project of installing four sewage treatment plants (STPs) by 2020.

The STPs will come up at the Hulimavu, the Sarakki, the Chikkabegur and the Agara lakes, all connecting the Bellandur lake. Once the STPs become functional, foaming at the Bellandur lake will come down, he added.