Dead fish surface again in Sursagar

Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) may have spent crores on sprucing up Sursagar, but it does not seem to have helped the pond’s aquatic life. For the second time within a month dead fish have surfaced in the pond on Friday.
The Sursagar pond was rejuvenated at a cost of Rs 38 crore. It was deepened and walkways and ghats were added to it, while the VMC is also looking to start boating in the pond.
On Saturday morning, however, citizens saw dead fish floating on its surface. A similar incident had taken place exactly a month back on April 21 and the standing committee chairman Dr Hitendra Patel had rushed to the pond and got it cleaned.
Saturday’s incident came to the notice of environmentalist Jitendra Gavali who said that it clearly reflected low dissolved oxygen content in the pond. Gavali said that this can happen due to pollution in the pond.
“The water holding capacity of Sursagar has gone down due to the embankments and walkways. This means it also has lower capacity of diluting pollutants as the water quantity in it is lower now,” said Gavali.
Gavali said that the dead fish indicate dissolved oxygen level in the pond has gone down. Fish cannot survive if it goes down significantly. This usually happens during summer. On May 9, dead fish had surfaced in a pond in the Khodiyarnagar area of the city too.
Sources said that in summer the dissolved oxygen level in a pond is the lowest in the early hours of the day. In a polluted water body it can fall below levels that are needed for the survival of fish.