Ulsoor lake in Bengaluru turning to garbage pit

BENGALURU: Ulsoor lake which is home to many islands and exotic birds is now turning into a garbage pit, as the summer heat rises. With the reducing water level of Ulsoor lake, the surroundings and small islands of the lake are being used as sites to throw, or even burn garbage.

The lake has been divided into different parts that are under separate functioning government bodies, including the irrigation department and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). According to the residents, the area under army has been maintained well, while the littered portions come under the BBMP, and it is the civic workers who are responsible for polluting the lake.

“We have been observing the lake for 15 days, and every day around 6 am, we see that garbage is dumped. Now, even plastic waste is being burnt inside the lake since water has receded,” said Joseph Hoover, an environmentalist and water conservationist.

Jagannath Rao, Deputy Conservator of Forest, BBMP, said, “Though we are maintaining the lake, we are not dumping any waste in it. The Solid Waste Management (SWM) department should be questioned. The workers involved in garbage segregation could be burning the garbage.”

According to the residents, the Ulsoor lake has been gone from “bad to worse”, and there is no agency taking responsibility of it.

D Randeep, special commissioner (Solid Waste Management) said, “The DCF has not reported any incident to me. I will check with AEE of Ulsoor and find out since we do not have the GPS tracking system for garbage tippers yet. We are going to bring in SWM data centre that will track the whereabouts of these vehicles. It should come into place after the elections.”