The Karnataka Pollution Control Board has announced a list of 488 industries that will be shut down for polluting the Bellandur lake. The announcement came after the state government approved the list on Thursday. The state Pollution Control Board had submitted this list to the government following the order of the National Green Tribunal earlier this month.
The list was released on Thursday, weeks after the National Green Tribunal ordered the shutdown of industries which were dumping waste into the lake. The NGT had also ordered a fine of Rs 5 lakh to these industries on April 19.
Bellandur Lake has been exposed to pollutants in the past causing it to froth and even catch fire. Even after the NGT asking the civic agencies to clean the lake and giving a month’s time, the Board had not taken appropriate action.
The pollution control board has now decided to issue a newspaper notification instead of issuing individual notices.
“Issuing individual notices will be time consuming. Hence, a collective notice to the 488 industries will be issued through a newspaper and they have to comply with the order immediately. A thorough inspection has been conducted based on the set up within these industries like sewage treatment plants, water quality and such technical parameters and most of the industries are found lacking,” said Shantappa, secretary, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).
A meeting will be held with the KSPCB officials and all the stakeholders on Friday regarding the restoration of the lake.
According to the KSPCB, if the NGT order is found to apply to the entire catchment area, close to 1,000 industries will have to be shut down. The catchment area covers 40% of Bengaluru.
February 17 saw the latest incident of the lake catching fire due to the chemical effluents that were being dumped in it.
Bellandur Lake, the largest of the 262 lakes and tanks in Bengaluru, receives about 40% of the city's sewage, according to the Karnataka Lake Development Authority. Previously, in May 2015 and August 2016, froth over the Bellandur Lake had caught fire due to formation of flammable methane gas.
After the NGT issued its order to Bengaluru’s civic agencies to clean up the lake, the agencies were mulling over installation of ramps to divert the froth from the lake.
However, this plan is not exactly feasible as there are high possibilities of the water flowing over the ramps and the frothing occurs in the end where the water flows.