Bengaluru: 5000 army personnel deployed to douse fire at Bellandur lake

Bengaluru: More than 5,000 army personnel led by Major General NS Rajpurohith, Deputy Commandant and chief instructor of ASC centre along with the officials of Karnataka Lake Development Authority (KLCDA) have been deployed to douse the third biggest fire at the Bellandur lake. The fire reportedly happened in the vicinity of the army firing range premises.

The CEO of KLCDA, Ms Seema Garg, maintained that the grass growing on and in the lake was under fire. “It would be appropriate to have few guards on duty to avoid intentional lighting of the fire by the grass harvesters to get the fresh flush of grass for cattle feed.”

Bellandur lake

Though in the afternoon, the KLCDA said that the fire would be doused soon but the situation was so grave that more army personnel had to be rushed in to douse the fire and the firefighting equipments were brought from the army premises.

As per the official statement released by the Ministry of Defence, Bengaluru, the outbreak of the fire at the lake was noticed at 12 noon.

“At 7:25 PM the fire was noticed at two places in the lake and the personnel were alerted to prevent the spread of fire into army and adjoining civil areas,” the statement read.

A fire of this magnitude shook the citizens, particularly as it comes only days after the BDA, BWSSB and BBMP were pulled up by Lokayukta over the deteriorating condition of the city's polluted lakes.

Though the reason behind the fire is still not clear, concerned citizens said on social media that the release of inflammable gases such as methane could be one of the reasons.

However, CEO of Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF),  Mr Sridhar Pabbisetty said to DC that he would rather wait for the forensic report before making assumptions although he doubted the official line of KLCDA. “We have to take stock of the situation. Had the expert committee suggestions been implemented, we would not have reached this pass. The expert committee report duly constituted by the state government is gathering dust and our recommendations have been ignored.”

He further added that a more vigorous monitoring of the lake is needed and the government should be tackle the situation more seriously.