https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/01/burning-lakes-experts-fear-bangalore-uninhabitable-2025
On the evening of Thursday 16 February, residents in the south-east part of Bangalore noticed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. The smoke was coming from the middle of Bellandur Lake – the biggest lake in the city at a little over 890 acres. They realised the seemingly impossible had happened: the lake had caught fire. Even fire fighters wondered how a blaze in water could be put out.
The fire in the lake burned for 12 hours and left behind a sinister black patch in the centre, according to some eye-witness accounts.
This is the new story of Bangalore – state capital, India’s Silicon Valley, and once upon a time, the “city of lakes”. The reasons why these lakes are able to catch fire begin to explain why scientists at the influential Indian Institute of Science believe Bangalore will be “unliveable” in a few years’ time.
A lethal mix of factors create an environment that merely requires the slightest of triggers for lakes to go up in flames. Untreated effluents pour into the waters from the many industries and homes on its banks, illegal waste disposal takes place on a large scale – often including rubbish which is set on fire – and invasive weeds cover large swathes of the lake in a thick green canopy.
The latest incident is not the first time the lake has caught fire; it happened in May 2015. A few days later, it was in news again for being covered in snow-like froth, which began to swirl up in the summer wind, engulfing passers-by. The froth was the result of chemical waste dumped in the lake, and was toxic enough to crack windshields, wear the paint off car hoods and exacerbate the severe respiratory issues that have plagued citizens in recent years.
(The Cuyahoga River in USA famously caught fire regularly. It was a major reason why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA for short) was founded by President Nixon in 1970. Now the Trumpster wants to cut funding to it - see
http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/
REM sung about it too - see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdC6thlCAlI )
