After Madiwala lake, Bengaluru’s Seegehalli Lake now has witnessed the massacre of thousands of fishes due to the growing pollution in the water body. On December 30, people residing near Seegehalli lake woke up to the sight of hundreds of dead fishes floating on the banks of the lake.
According to one of the lake guardian, Balaji Ragotham, water samples have been sent to the laboratory to determine what led to the death of thousands of fishes. “I was taken by surprise as we make all efforts to keep our lake and surroundings clean”, he added while talking to Bangalore Mirror.
Is the lake design flawed?
Residents who developed the lake and have been maintaining it ever since, while claiming that the design of the lake is flawed said that the inflow of underground drainage might have led to the death of marine life. They argued that the inlet pipe is directly connected to the stormwater drain and thus, the stormwater drain overflows, depositing silts everytime it rains even a little.
Reportedly, the residents have been making active efforts in keeping the lake clean. Nanda, another lake guardian while talking The Logical Indian said that the lake has been polluted and is yet to be cleaned. He said, “I said around 100 to 200 dead fishes were floating on the lake in the morning and we do not know how many more might have died inside the lake.”
Pollution affecting Bengaluru’s lakes
This is not the first incident where marine life had to bear the brunt of the city’s growing pollution. Earlier this year, thousands of fishes and snails were found dead in Madiwala lake in October. Fishes need an adequate amount of oxygen in the water to survive, but the rising pollution led to the disaster, said the residents.
Kalkere lake, known for its froth has also witnessed deaths of thousands of fishes mainly due to rising pollution and laxity of the authorities.
Last month, Kommagatta Lake, which is considered as one of the healthiest lakes in the city had also been worrying the residents ever since they spotted dead fishes floating in the water body.
“Culprits need to be punished”, says Environmentalist, Yellappa Reddy
Even after various measures taken by the government and people to save Bengaluru’s lakes, we have failed to protect aquatic animals. According to Yellappa Reddy, a senior environmentalist, due to continuous dumping of untreated sewage water and distilled waste in the lake, the oxygen demand in the water might have increased which led to the disaster.
“Government is the custodian and they must preserve and protect our water bodies and local people also needs to participate actively. There are no proper sewage water treatment plants which need to be installed at the earliest,” said Reddy while talking to The Logical Indian.
He added that it is necessary to find out who is responsible for such crises and needs to be punished if we want to save Bangalore’s lakes.
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