Officials of the district environmental Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and the Tiruvannamalai district administration have introduced bioremediation to tackle the incidence of aquaculture strangulation from April this year.
Several fish were found dead in ‘Brahmatheertham’ and ‘Sivagangai theertham’ located inside the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple earlier this year. District Collector K.S. Kandasamy ordered the cleaning of the temple tanks and sought a report from a team of experts on the cause of death.
Maintaining quality
The expert team found low oxygen levels in the water and climate change to have caused the deaths of the fish. They urged the temple authorities to maintain the ‘highest quality’ when it came to the tank water.
After a series of discussions between the District Administration, the TNPCB and the temple administration, bioremediation was suggested to clean the tanks.
Small floats using ‘Vetiver’ (Vetiveria zizanioides) were implanted and micros powder solution was used to clean up the water in both tanks.
Mr. Kandasamy who launched the cleaning process at the temple tanks said that the efforts would keep the water clean and would help the aquatic life too.
Constant monitoring
Constant monitoring of the cleaning process has been ordered to assess the water quality in temple tanks, he said.
Temple Joint Commissioner Gnanasekar and TNPCB Assistant Engineer Suhasini were present during the commencement of cleaning process.
Temple officials said the process would use a consortium of microbes to break down the organic waste in the water.