HYDERABAD: In a tragic accident that exposes quality of environmental restoration efforts in our country, thousands of fish released into Neknampur Lake on Friday died within minutes. The water body turned into a mass grave, much to the embarrassment of government officials present during the event. Ironically, the fish were released to celebrate the lake’s revival from pollution.
The event was held by Telangana fisheries department, World Wildlife Fund India and a local NGO called Dhruvansh. Officials and volunteers were stunned when the fish, thousands of them, started floating dead within minutes. Soon, it ended up as a blame game between the NGOs and government department, with people blaming each other.
The Neknampur Lake had become toxic for fish due to continuous inflow of untreated sewage from surroundings, dumping of solid waste and immersion of idols. Around June 2016, Dhruvansh began working on restoration of the lake and its surroundings. It introduced techniques like artificial floating wetlands to improve the quality of water.
Friday’s freak incident has raised several doubts: Did the NGO not clean the lake properly? Or, did the officials not transport and release the fish under ideal conditions? An official of the fisheries department, obviously blamed the NGO. “The water is too polluted and that is why the accident happened,” he said.
Responding, Neeraj Singh of Dhruvansh said, “Those fish were introduced into the water at a time (at noon) when the dissolved oxygen levels are not optimum for them to survive”. While a local fisherman, Babu Rao present there said, “The force with which they were thrown in is what killed them.”