Dead fish found floating as oxygen levels dip in Ganga

KANPUR: After Kannauj, thousands of dead fish were found floating in Ganga at Bilhaur's Nanamau ghat, Chaubeypur's Andimata and Pathakpur ghats in Kanpur on Tuesday.
District and Pollution Control Board officials rushed to the site and collected water samples for examination. A large number of fish had died in Kannauj's Mehndi ghat on Monday.

Panic gripped residents of Bilhaur, Chaubeypur, Bithoor, Bhairav ghat, Shuklaganj, Gola ghat and Jajmau areas after thousands of dead fish were found floating in Ganga on Tuesday. Though the exact cause of their death is yet to be ascertained, officials of Regional Pollution Control Board said that they died due to heavy pollution which has reduced oxygen level in water to 2.8 mg.

A team of Wild Life Institute of India (Dehradun) and pollution control department visited Kannauj and collected water samples and dead fish for tests.

A team member said that it was primarily found that lack of oxygen level in water had caused death of the fish.

Kuldeep Mishra, Regional officer of PCB, said that following recovery of dead fish at various points of Ganga in the district, the team has identified several points like Bilhaur, Chaubeypur, Bithoor, Bhairav Ghat, Unnao's Shuklaganj, Gola Ghat and Jajmau in the downstream of the river.

"Though, we are assuming that these were the same dead fish that had flown down from the upstream in Kannauj towards the downstream in Unnao and Kanpur. We have collected samples from across all the points where dead fish were found floating and have sent them for tests to ascertain their cause of death," he added.

He further said that oxygen level at river Garra, a tributary of Ganga in Kannauj, has reduced to 2.8 mg which probably proved deadly for the aquatic animals.

He said the toxic waste would make its impact in downstream but its intensity would reduce simultaneously. "Ganga water has a quality to improve itself, and in some samples collected from Kanpur, it came to the fore that dissolved oxygen level was above 5 mg", he added.