Thousands of dead fish float in Indrayani

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: Villagers in Dehu were shocked to see hundreds of dead fish floating in the waters of the Indrayani on Sunday morning.

By afternoon, the villagers said, the 1km river stretch from Mahadwar near Devulwada to Gatah temple got a thick cover of dead fish.
Villager Prashant Kalokhe said, “It was extremely unfortunate that around 7,000-8,000 fish died. Some of the fish were 2-3ft long. Fish death in such a huge scale here was reported around 20 years ago, when an industrial unit in the Talegaon MIDC area had released untreated effluents into the river.”
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) officials on Monday told TOI that the rising summer temperature, low water levels and the untreated domestic sewage in the Indrayani river is might have killed thousands of fish.
MPCB sub-regional officer Upendra Kulkarni said, “Our regional officer, Dilip Khedekar, and I inspected the Indrayani river banks on Monday morning in a boat from Gopalpura to Gatha mandir and collected water and fish samples for analysis. The untreated domestic sewage from Dehu village enters the river near this stretch. We saw many people still removing dead fish from the river.”
He added, “We have told the villagers to alert us in case of any such mass death of fish. We expect to get the laboratory reports of the fish and water samples after a week. We can ascertain the exact cause of the incident only after receiving the reports.”
Dehu village development officer Arjun Gudsurkar said, “An Underground drainage pipeline network has been created in the village with funds from the state government under the Theerthkshetra Vikas Arakhada project. The work of constructing a sewage treatment plant (STP) is in progress.”
Villager Kalokhe said the doctor at the primary health centre of Dehu has told the people to not drink water supplied from the Indrayani river for one day to avoid any health problems. “The doctor also advised the people to immediately report to the PHC if anyone suffers from dysentry or vomiting after drinking water supplied from the river,” he added.
Sanjay Jambhulkar, another villager, said, “”Untreated sewage is released into the Indrayani for over the years, right from the Lonavala town to the end of the river. But such fish death incident has not occurred before. We cannot rule out any foul play.”
Hundreds of dead fish were found floating on the surface of Pavana river in Thergaon in May, hinting at the growing pollution in the water body. Similar occurrence was reported from Thergaon in February as well.