Forest department employees clean Madivala lake in Bengaluru
Thousands of dead snails are still floating on the banks of the historical Madivala lake in south Bengaluru. Now, along with the snails, even hundreds of fish have also died in the last one week.
"Fish in lakes normally die due to the lack of oxygen caused by the mixing of drainage water into the lake, but the death of snails is mysterious," says Vaman Acharya, former chairman of the State Pollution Control Board. Snails can survive both in water and on bushy soil as well, but their deaths have puzzled experts.
Almost half a dozen forest department employees have been continuously cleaning the banks of one of Bengaluru's largest lakes. It comes under the Karnataka forest department.
A senior official of the department told NDTV that "contamination of the lake water has endangered marine life". "Heavy rain pushed more dirty and contaminated water into the lake, leading to this situation," the official said.
Joggers and residents, however, say the death of snails is a natural process. If water contamination was the case, the situation would be the same across all the lakes in Bengaluru.
The flow of migratory birds, especially the spot-billed pelican, has gradually decreased over a couple of decades as their main food, fish, are not available because of increasing pollution.
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