Bengaluru's Chikkanagamangala lake beset with massive fish kill, residents alarmed

In one of the biggest fish kill incidents in recent times, at least a thousand dead fish were found floating in Chikkanagamangala lake near Electronics City on Sunday.

While local residents suspect that contaminated water entered the waterbody from a nearby waste processing plant, the BBMP has refuted these charges. 

Though multiple instances of fish kill have been reported in the last two months, Chikkanagamangala is the worst.

Residents alleged that the waste processing plant located just 300 meters away from the lake discharged leachate into the rajakaluve without treating it as per the norms. 

“The processing plant operators may have discharged the contaminated water, which flows out of the garbage dump yard, without treating it adequately,” Pranay Dubey of citizens forum Electronic City Rising said.

The group alerted officials from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). “As they did not respond, we flagged it to the chief minister’s office. They have promised to take action,” he said. 

The processing plant, situated in Chikkanagamangala, handles around 100 metric tonnes of garbage a day and the BBMP depends heavily on this plant. Locals have been against the processing plant, stating that the waste is not processed scientifically.

When a joint committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) inspected the plant recently, it had found that it did not have adequate facility to treat the leachate. 

While the BBMP handles the plant, the lake does not come under its jurisdiction.