Mangaluru: Greens on a mission to shift fish from abandoned construction sites

MANGALURU: A team of conservationists in the city are on a mission to relocate fishes from abandoned construction sites to lakes and thereby preserve the species.
The team of conservationists - Bhuvan Devadiga, Jeeth Milan Roche, Athik D B, Selma and Nidhi PK - have taken up the task of catching fish from a huge construction site at Kodialbail, where there are thousands of fishes. With the end of the rainy season, the water accumulated in the abandoned construction sites will deplete leaving fishes dead. The team has already shifted approximately 6,000 fishes to various protected lakes in and around Mangaluru.
Bhuvan Devadiga, an amateur snake rescuer, said: “A property developer in the city approached us to rescue fishes from their construction sites so that they can be rehabilitated in lakes when they resume the work. They came to know about initiatives being taken up by our group for the protection of the environment after the shifting of Ashwatha trees from the Central Railway Station premises to facilitate the development of additional platforms.”
“They informed us that there are thousands of fish in the construction site which may die when the work begins. To control malaria, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) and activists had released guppy and other fish fingerlings into the large area of an abandoned construction site, which was turned into a lake. The water body also has several species of fishes including irpe, tilapia and other local varieties,” he said.
Fishes put into lakes
Fishes are being shifted to Gujjarakere and Kavoor lakes, which are developed and protected by the city corporation. “We catch the fish alive and put them in trays along with water. Each tray with nearly 50-70 fishes are being shifted to lakes in a van within one hour of the catch so that it will not face difficulties due to oxygen shortage, he said, adding that the whole expenses of the shifting are being borne by the team.
Environmentalist Jeeth Milan Roche said the number of fishes had multiplied in the stagnant water body at the construction site in Kodialbail. “Since the work on the construction at the site had stopped a few years ago, water had remained accumulated and stagnant. The MCC had released a few fish species after receiving several complaints regarding breeding of mosquitoes from the site. If we do not shift the fishes from the construction sites after the end of monsoon, they will die in summer. Hence, we took the initiative to shift them to protected lakes,” he said.