Over 500 Residents Rally To Save Muthanallur Lake | Bengaluru News – Times of India

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BENGALURU: Fighting to save Muthanallur Lake, off Electronics City, from industrial pollution, over 500 people took out a 10km-long rally on Saturday. The citizens appealed to civic bodies and industry associations to safeguard and prevent the waterbody from getting polluted on the lines of Bellandur and Varthur lakes.
Spread over 600 acres and abutting about 10 villages, Muthanallur Lake is the second-largest waterbody in Anekal taluk of Bengaluru Urban district and the latest lake in Bengaluru to witness intense frothing. Continuous frothing since pre-monsoon showers resulted in deposition of black soot on the adjoining concrete roads. What is even more worrying is the deposit of viscous synthetic polymer substances in the flowing water.

Over 500 residents rally to save Muthanallur Lake

Agitated over the local body’s inaction in putting an end to lake pollution, residents, and villagers from adjoining localities got together and took out a protest rally to Chandapura and Bommasandra town municipal corporations and sought immediate intervention. Nazareth Samson, a resident, said: “We have grown up in this locality drinking water from the lake, which was crystal clear. But today, it is emanating a foul smell and froth is flying all around. Untreated effluents from Bommasandra and Chandapura Industrial layouts are to blame.”
In fact, when residents raised an alarm over changes in colour of the lake water, officials from the fisheries department carried out tests on water and fish samples. “Despite the foul smell, the reports revealed that water quality was normal, and fish from the lake fit for human consumption. If there is no variation in the quality of water, why is the lake frothing and emanating a foul smell,” asked Samson.
Bhanu Prathap, another resident from the locality, said: “Bengaluru Urban district officials cleared all encroachments to get water under the KC Valley project. The result is that the lake is overflowing and along with water, untreated sewage and pollutants are also being discharged into it. The borewells in the adjoining areas too are affected and people are suffering from different skin diseases. Farmers cultivating vegetables have given up either due to poor yield, or failure of crops due to change in water quality. Freshwater fish from Muthanallur Lake made a name as far as Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu. But none of the locals consume fish. Fish yield — 500 to 1,000kg per day — has now reduced to just 50 to 75 kg.”
All the residents and volunteers who gathered at the lake at 8:30am on Saturday led by Sandeep Salian, senior civil judge and member-secretary of district legal services authority of Bengaluru Rural district, walked towards Chandapura town municipal corporation and later to Bommasandra town municipal corporation seeking immediate intervention to save the lake.
“We also appealed to Bommasandra Industries’ Association, who had spent Rs 8 crore on rejuvenation of Bommasandra Lake as part of CSR activities, to launch a similar programme here, besides sensitising their members about letting untreated sewage and pollutants into the lake,” added Samson.

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