Bengaluru: Toxic froth from Bellandur lake recedes

 The city's famous Bellandur lake continued to spew 'toxic froth' today, but it is reducing because of receding rains.

After being pounded by a record-breaking downpour early this week, the city is on the road to recovery. "The lake still continues to spew toxic froth. Continues to fly, though it is not that nightmarish as it was during the torrential rainfall four days back. "It is reducing because of receding rains," Lakes Conservation Expert and resident of the area, Shalini Batra Sahni told PTI, here today.

Incessant rains on August 14 and 15 had resulted in the increase of the lake's water levels and the formation of toxic froth. The rains had aggravated the situation with thick froth spilling on to the road nearby causing inconvenience to commuters driving along the stretch. "This, however, is not the scene today," she said. Sahni expressed fear about residents living around the lake developing disease by coming in contact with toxic froth flying around.

After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had pulled up the state government over pollution of the lake yesterday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said the long- standing problem will be solved in one or two years. The NGT had also asked the government to submit a compliance report on its earlier direction on August 22. In April, the tribunal had directed shutdown of industries near the water body.

Following the NGT's order in April, Bangalore Development Authority had begun clearing the lake of weeds, which made the lake prone to fire and was supposed to complete the task by May end. The officials are cleaning up weeds from the lake, Sahni said.

In March, British and Israel experts had visited the lake to provide potential solutions to tackle the frothing before the situation went out of hand. Meanwhile, several residential localities which bore the brunt of the highest amount of rain on a single day in August in 127 years in the early hours of Tuesday, were on the road to normalcy.

Affected residents in low-lying areas were seen drying out their belongings like linen, furniture and clothes as water had entered their homes, in several cases contaminated rainwater from the overflowing drains. The country's IT capital was brought to its knees when it was pounded by 12.8 cm rain in five hours between Monday night and Tuesday morning, which is the highest in a day in August since 1890.

The rain flooded major roads caused drainage water to enter the houses in low-lying areas and left cars parked in the basement submerged and the residents stranded. Rescue boats were used in several affected residential localities to shift stranded residents.

The worst-hit were south and eastern parts of Bengaluru-- Koramangala, HSR Layout, Ejipura, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Bannerghatta Road and pockets of Indiranagar--where pre-dawn rain and winds snapped power lines, uprooted trees and inundated roads, submerging vehicles. Water had been pumped from homes in Koramangala, Indiranagar and BTM Layout till yesterday by the Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services, officials said.