BENGALURU: Dismayed by the current condition of the Bellandur Lake, a resident of Bellandur has started a petition on ‘Change.org’ demanding that the lake be cleaned. The petition has already garnered close to 15,000 signatures.
Sanchita Jha, a techie, started the petition three weeks ago after the lake started foaming, the second time in this big a way.
Sanchita says the lake has been polluted to an extent that the foam coming out causes rashes and singes the skin.
“The lake was one of the biggest in Bengaluru, supplying water to around 20 villages all around. Now, it is hardly even a lake. There is no aquatic life in it at all. All the surrounding wetlands have disappeared. The groundwater is adulterated. People have started taking different routes to commute to their work places. It is a total ecological disaster, and is very surprising how this has still not been taken up as an emergency by the authorities,” Sanchita says.
She cites the example of two students from IISc, who were researching on the lake samples, developed rashes and started vomiting after being exposed to the toxic water for just half-an-hour. “E-coli has reached shocking levels - while the optimum range is less than 100, Bellandur lake’s water has it in the range of 717-916. The normal range for Phosphates is 0.2, but the figure has touched 2.6. That is how bad it is,” Sanchita says.
She added that repeated calls to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Water and Sewerage Board and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) have not yielded any response.
The country lead of Change.org Preeti Herman, said, “Through Sanchita’s petition, around 15,000 residents of Bengaluru have come out to express their concern on the issue and ask for a solution. This is an opportunity for the Government of Karnataka to engage with the concerned citizens to address the issue that has grave consequences for the city.”
Once the petition garners 15,000 signatures, a memorandum will be submitted to the Minister for Forests and Ecology Ramanath Rai, demanding that the lake be cleaned immediately.