Fish kill in Puttenahalli Lake

Fish kill in Puttenahalli Lake

The Hindu

Residents say rivalry between farmers led to the incident

# Municipal Commissioner denies knowledge of incident
# People For Animals posts volunteers at spot
# Lake Development Authority says it has received complaint from residents
# Sewage may have entered lake: Deputy Conservator of Forests
# Exact reason can be known only after water samples are tested


BANGALORE: After the fish kill in Ulsoor Lake in January and Vengaiana Lake in May, a large number of fish has died in the Puttenahalli Lake in the Bommanahalli City Municipal Council (CMC) limits.

Though residents of Puttenahalli said they detected the fish kill on Tuesday after stench engulfed the area, officials from the Lake Development Authority (LDA), the Directorate of Fisheries and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) got to know of it only on Wednesday.

But the Bommanahalli Municipal Commissioner, H.M. Udayshankar, said he was "not aware of the fish kill."

Residents alleged that rivalry between two fish farmers had led to the incident. "The Directorate of Fisheries had let out the lake to a private contractor for breeding fish. But his opponent, who could not bag the contract, has poisoned the water resulting in the fish kill," Purshottam Raju, a volunteer with People For Animals (PFA), who is also a resident of Puttenahalli, said.

He said the PFA had posted volunteers at the lake to stop people from taking the dead fish for consumption. "If the water has been poisoned, the fish is not safe for consumption," he said.

The LDA officials said they had got a complaint from the residents.

"We have sent our officials for collecting samples of water and the dead fish for analysis. I suspect it could have happened because of depletion in the dissolved oxygen level. We can know the exact reason only after the test report," the LDA Deputy Conservator of Forests, Vanashree Vipin Singh, told The Hindu on Wednesday.

She pointed out that sewage from a major storm water drain that flowed along the lake could have entered the lake resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen level. "We have taken up the Puttenahalli Lake for restoration last year at a cost of Rs. 2 crores. The project is in its final stages now. When we started work, we noticed that sewage from the drain flowed into the lake. We also wrote to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board and the Urban Development Department to divert the line because sewage leads to growth of water algae which also consumes oxygen," she said.

She said the LDA had set up two wetlands to treat the sewage water there. "But it has been of no help," she explained.

Ms. Vanashree said the rivalry between the two contractors had come to her notice.

"But the exact reason for the fish kill can be known only after the water samples are tested," she added.

The KSPCB Environmental Officer, Shivalinge Gowda, and an Assistant Director from the Directorate of Fisheries (who did not want to be quoted) visited the lake on Wednesday and have taken samples of water and dead fish for investigation.

The Fisheries Directorate official said most of the dead fish belonged to the common carp breed.

"We have deployed seven persons to remove the dead fish from the lake and bury them. We are also releasing potassium permanganate solution into the water to increase the dissolved oxygen level," he added.