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Hundreds of dead fish found floating in a Ranchi pond
The 3.5 acre water body behind Albert Ekka Chowk is owned by the Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA). The RRDA had beautified and developed the pond at Rs 2.43 crore.
Residents around Ranchi’s Albert Ekka Chowk were shocked to find hundreds of dead fish floating in a city pond on Wednesday morning. The locals blamed overuse of bleaching powder in a bid to clean the pond for the upcoming Chhath festival to be cause of this problem.
Rupesh Singh, a local resident, said, “Around 7am, we noticed that hundreds of fish were floating in the water body, popularly known as Line Tank pond. It has never happened before.” As the news spread, people started thronging the pond and took away as many fishes as they could, he said.
Another resident, Bhola Ram said that the pond was cleaned with bleaching powder after immersion of idols. “I think overdose of bleach could be the reason of the deaths,” he said.
The 3.5 acre water body behind Albert Ekka Chowk is owned by the Ranchi Regional Development Authority (RRDA). The RRDA had beautified and developed the pond at Rs 2.43 crore.
However, Chadri Sarna Samiti has been rearing fish in the pond for years. Bablu Munda of the Samiti said over 80 kilograms of fingerlings had been poured in the pond this year. “We were expecting 15-20 quintals of fish. But sudden death of fishes has caused major revenue loss to us,” he said.
Munda, however, denied overuse of bleach in the pond. “Due to change in weather, fishes were found afloat in the pond due to lack of oxygen. All fishes were not dead,” Munda claimed.
Assistant director of state fishery department Ashish Kumar said that fishes could die due to both reasons. “If there is no sun and cloudy weather prevails for two to three days, oxygen level drops in the pond. When it comes below 4 PPM (parts per million), fishes start dying,” he said, adding, overdose of bleaching powder could also kill fishes.
He said that water of the pond needed to be tested to understand actual reason behind the deaths.
