Chandrapur: Hundreds of fish were found floating dead along the bank of historic Ramala pond in the city on Tuesday. A team of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has collected sample of water from different places of the pond.
MPCB regional officer Ashok Kare said the exact cause behind the death of fishes will be known after receipt of the report.
NGO Eco-Pro Organization claimed the pond water has been poisoned due to pollution caused by the Macchi nullah flowing into it. The organization on Tuesday staged demonstrations to demand measures to stop pollution in the pond.
President of Eco-Pro, Bandu Dhotre claimed that the fishes have been dying since last many days, but the matter came to light when they inspected the pond on Republic Day. “The groundwater in surrounding area too is becoming polluted. There is a foul stench in water of borewells and wells,” he said.
“It becomes unbearable when the wind brings along the stench from the Ramala pond to residential areas,” said Dhotre.
He claimed that they have raises the matter with the district administration multiple times. “Meetings were held with the then collector Dr Kunal Khemnar and it was decided to clean and deepen the pond, fill it with fresh water pumped out of WCL mine, divert highly polluted Macchi nullah and construct an effluent treatment plant,” said Dhotre.
“The proposal never materialized due to the Covid pandemic last year. The cleaning and deepening of pond needs to be done before the onset of monsoon,” he said.
The organization has warned to launch an intense agitation if the administration fails to take up the pond’s conservation work this year.