Indian officials dispatched 5,000 soldiers to battle a stunning ecological disaster after a lake caught fire in Bangalore.

The Bellandur lake, once Bangalore’s largest water body, is now reduced to a dump of sewage, chemical effluents, solid garbage, construction debris and dry grass.

Local residents noticed fire in the middle of the wetlands on January 19 around 12 noon. The area was soon covered with huge plumes of smoke billowing from the lake.

Though fire tenders rushed to the scene, they could not approach the spot where the fire broke out.

The Ministry of Defence officials then sent a contingent of 5,000 soldiers from the nearby the Armed Services Corps Centre, which managed to get the fire under control by 10pm in the night. The fire was finally put out 24 hours later.

Major General N S Rajpurohit, who led the Army team, said the cause of fire was not known.

“The lake has been catching fire almost every year,“ he said.

Civic officials said they were investigating the cause of fire.

“The dry grass may have triggered the fire, which then spread through garbage and chemical waste,” said a senior official of Bangalore Development Authority, without disclosing his name.

The Bellandur lake had caught fire in February 2017 as well. The officials had then blamed the mishap on methane gas that had accumulated as a result of illegal industrial waste dumping.

Indian officials dispatched 5,000 soldiers to battle a stunning ecological disaster after a lake caught fire in Bangalore.

The Bellandur lake, once Bangalore’s largest water body, is now reduced to a dump of sewage, chemical effluents, solid garbage, construction debris and dry grass.

Local residents noticed fire in the middle of the wetlands on January 19 around 12 noon. The area was soon covered with huge plumes of smoke billowing from the lake.

Though fire tenders rushed to the scene, they could not approach the spot where the fire broke out.

The Ministry of Defence officials then sent a contingent of 5,000 soldiers from the nearby the Armed Services Corps Centre, which managed to get the fire under control by 10pm in the night. The fire was finally put out 24 hours later.

Major General N S Rajpurohit, who led the Army team, said the cause of fire was not known.

“The lake has been catching fire almost every year,“ he said.

Civic officials said they were investigating the cause of fire.

“The dry grass may have triggered the fire, which then spread through garbage and chemical waste,” said a senior official of Bangalore Development Authority, without disclosing his name.

The Bellandur lake had caught fire in February 2017 as well. The officials had then blamed the mishap on methane gas that had accumulated as a result of illegal industrial waste dumping.