Dead fish: BMC sends Banganga Tank water sample for testing

Located in the upscale Malabar Hill neighbourhood, Banganga is a fresh-water stepped tank that is also one of the last remaining natural water bodies of the city

Mumbai: A day after hundreds of dead fish were seen floating in the Banganga Tank under mysterious circumstances, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have sent its water samples for testing and analysing the chemical components of the water.

A worker collects hundreds of dead fish after they were spotted floating in the Banganga Tank at Walkeshwar Temple Complex, in Mumbai on Thursday. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Located in the upscale Malabar Hill neighbourhood, Banganga is a fresh-water stepped tank that is also one of the last remaining natural water bodies of the city. The origin of this tank dates back to the 12th century and at present, this lake has been identified as a heritage precinct by the government of Maharashtra. At present, the tank is owned and managed by GSB Temple Trust.

Civic officials said that they have received complaints of dead fish floating on the water from Wednesday (April 20) onwards and by Thursday morning, the entire water surface of the tank seemed to be covered with dead fish in the last two days, a total of three trucks of dead fish were removed. Members of the GSB Trust stated that this tank is home to more than 220 different species of fish.

“We started removing the dead fish from Wednesday night itself. Such a sight is common during the months of September or October when devotees give offerings to the water during Pitru-Paksha but this is quite unusual that so many fish have died in April as something of this sort has not happened before. We have already collected samples of the water body and have sent it to the laboratory to check if there has been any contamination or chemical ingression in the water,” said Prashant Gaikwad, assistant municipal commissioner and in charge of D-ward. The tank comes under his jurisdiction.

Besides BMC, officials from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Fisheries Department and Taraporewala Aquarium had also visited the spot on Friday and carried out an inspection.

“We have taken carcasses of dead fish to assess the cause of death. Lack of oxygen in the tank water can be one of the main reasons. However, we need to conduct further studies on what caused this,” said an official.

Meanwhile, members of the charitable trust said that in the past two days, they have set up pumps to regulate oxygen levels in the water body and have also poured in fresh water from tankers. “Some of the officials have said that the decline of the oxygen level could have caused this. But it is quite absurd that how can the oxygen level of the water decline suddenly,” said Rutvik Aurangabadwala, CEO- projects, GSB Trust.

“Some officials have also said that the number of fish in the tank must have exceeded the usual capacity due to which the incident could have happened. However, we are waiting for the reports to make a concrete conclusion of this fact,” said Aurangabadwala.