Residents clean Hulimavu lake after Ganesha immersion

Bengaluru: The residents from Hulimavu area off Bannerghatta Road came together to clean the Hulimavu lake which was polluted by immersion of Ganesha idols here.

“This year we were initially happy because the kalyani saw over 5000 immersions and not a single idol reached Hulimavu lake! This was a brilliant alternative to stop the pollution occurring in the lake. There were barricades set up around the lake and policemen and volunteers were keeping a strict vigil,” said a resident of Hulimavu.

However, few days after that the residents started facing the trouble since the debris had set in the Hulimvu lake. Thermocol, plastic flowers and other wet waste which was been used on the idold were seen floating in the lake, said a resident.

Even after the Government gave instructions, a bunch of miscreants, had sneaked into the lake area and performed an immersion in the Hulimavu lake after a 21-day window. The whole lake was filled with debris from the broken idols, wet waste, plastic flowers and other non-biodegradable products.

Volunteers joined together to pulled out the debris and other remains of the idols which was polluting the lake.

“We pulled out around nine idols that were thrown recklessly into an area which was declared as out-of-bounds for immersion by the BBMP. We were able to restore the cleanliness of the lake after a few weeks’ of intervention. We would meet every Sunday morning at 7.30 a.m. and clean up the lake,” said a committee member.