Pitrupaksha offerings choke Banganga Tank, fishes die in shoals

Rohit Joshi, founder of Yeoor Environmental Society, said that such offerings severely impact the bio-dissolved oxygen (BOD) levels inside the tank which lead to the deaths of fish

MUMBAI: Two days after devotees performed rituals for their ancestors at Banganga Tank, a large quantity of dead fishes was seen floating on the water, with BMC cleaners picking them up one by one and chucking them into crates. The rituals were performed on Sunday on the occasion of Sarva Pitru Amavasya, and food, hair, flowers and fruit were immersed in the water.

On Tuesday, fish were seen gasping for oxygen at the edges of the tank from where fresh water enters, mainly at Gaumukh, the primary inlet of sweet water. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

“On Monday, the deaths were not as rampant, as the rains provided the fish with some amount of oxygen from the fresh water,” said Rajesh Pardeshi, a resident of Banganga. “But on Tuesday, all were seen gasping for oxygen at the edges of the tank from where fresh water enters, mainly at Gaumukh, the primary inlet of sweet water.”

Rohit Joshi, founder of Yeoor Environmental Society, said that such offerings severely impact the bio-dissolved oxygen (BOD) levels inside the tank which lead to the deaths of fish. “This has been happening for years,” he pointed out.

The 12th-century Banganga Tank, a fresh-water waterbody and heritage site, is managed and owned by the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB) Trust. Mass fish deaths have been a common occurrence here over the past few years.

The dead fish collected by the BMC cleaners on Tuesday filled up seven Clean-Up dumper trucks even as the cleaning of the 33-feet-deep tank continued. The BMC had installed three de-watering pumps and aerators on the edges to add oxygen but they did little to help the fishes on the brink of death.

In all, the BMC removed 10,000 kg of waste in the last two days, which included the dead fish. Six thousand kg waste was removed on Sunday night and 2,000 kg each on Monday and Tuesday, according to civic officials.

Banganga has been facing several issues over the last few months. Its renovation was taken up by the BMC in 2024 but the work is still not complete. The heritage stairs were removed and replaced with cement-concrete ones, which led to outrage. The heritage stones continue to remain dumped on the banks of the tank. Earlier this year, a section of the wall at Banganga also collapsed, prompting urgent repair works.

A week before the Pitrupaksha, environmental activists had asked the BMC and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to set up a Standard Operating Procedure similar to the restrictions put up during Ganesh Chaturthi, when all immersions were banned in Banganga.

On the day of the festival, the managing trust had deployed bodyguards at the entrances to prevent rituals from being performed at the tank. “There were several bodyguards at the entrance points but the crowd was too huge for them to handle,” said Pardeshi. Added Prasad Mahale, chairman of the GSB Trust, “A similar situation is likely to come up in November during Chhat Pooja. We don’t have the authority to restrict people.”

The activists had raised an alarm over the mass deaths, and warned the BMC of contempt of court for failing to abide by court orders. “We will now file a case in the sessions court, after we get lab reports of the water,” said Joshi. The Bombay high court and Supreme Court courts have in several orders prohibited the dumping of flowers and other ritual materials in natural water bodies.

Last year, when plans for the redevelopment of Banganga were floated, gates were to be built around the tank. “However nothing has been done so far,” said Pardeshi.

“We are only the owners of the land, the maintenance is done by BMC and the Archaeological Survey of India as it is a heritage site,” said Prasad Mahale, chairman, GSB Trust.

A BMC official said on condition of anonymity, “We have collected over 7,000 kg of waste and dead fish from the tank so far. We’ve set up aerators and dewatering pumps to increase oxygen levels in the water and sent samples for testing to assess chemical ingression and water contamination.”