Bengaluru is paying the price for killing its water bodies, with most of them now part of the waste ecosystem. A study by the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Ecological Studies last year reported that the city has lost 79 per cent of its water bodies. Even the 68 lakes existing on paper today are toxic, filled both with domestic sewage and industrial effluents, causing some of them like Bellandur, Yemlur and Varthur to let out froth all the time or even go up in flames. This has caused the underground water to get recharged with polluted water.