Bengaluru: Varthur Lake up in flames again

Bengaluru: Jagadish Nagappa Reddy, a member of the Lake Warden Committee, conducted his rounds of Varthur Lake as usual on Tuesday morning.  At around 9.30 am, he found, to his horror, that Thubarahalli village, which lies upstream of the lake, was engulfed in smoke, with a fire raging in an inlet between Thubarahalli and Balagere villages.

The recent spells of rain had unleashed chaos on the ailing lake, with heavy winds carrying chemical foam across the fences, and marring pedestrian access to certain inlets, too. "Lake wardens have been on rounds to keep a watch for illegal activities," Nagappa told Deccan Chronicle.

Illegal garbage dump cause of fire? The area around the canal is ridden with garbage. "There is an illegal garbage processing plant suspected to be owned and operated by Bangladeshi nationals," Nagappa said. "I suspect the owners of this unit may have set fire to heaps of garbage."