A major fish kill incident has been reported at the Lingambudhi Lake with hundreds of dead fish floating in the foreshore of the waterbody.
The incident came to light on Tuesday, August 29, and senior forest department officials including Deputy Conservator of Forests Basavaraju reached the spot to apprise themselves of the development.
Officials from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and Fisheries Department too reached the spot and the pollution control board staff collected samples of the lake water to subject it to laboratory analysis. Officials said they have taken multiple samples to study various parameters including Dissolved Oxygen level, Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) etc. Fish kill is not confined to any specific portion of the waterbody and has affected the entire lake.
Mr. Basavaraju said that preliminary assessment indicates rainfall on August 27 in Belawadi, Vijayanagar, Dattagalli and Bogadi may have led to inflow of water bringing pollutants as well as organic content into the lake and their putrefaction may have led to depletion in the oxygen level in the water. Samples of the viscera have been collected and sent to Fisheries College in Mangaluru while the carcasses of the fish will be cleared from the lake within a day, Mr. Basavaraju added. A preliminary report pointing to the cause of fish kill may be available by Wednesday, he added.
Local stakeholders said there is no major depletion of water level in the lake and the constant inflow of sewage had to be stopped. The incident shows the status of the lake which is under the custody of the Forest Department and indicates that the quality of water is poor, they added.
At a recent meeting of the stakeholders, the Forest Department had mooted the idea of establishing a sewage treatment plant before letting in the water into the lake and maintain the quality of the waterbody and if it materialises then such incidents could be avoided, said the stakeholders hinting that even algae bloom could have also caused the fish kill
The lake is a hotspot of biodiversity and has a water spread of over 160 acres and supports more than 200 species of birds, 105 plus species of butterflies while the forest department has established a herbal garden with different species of plants.
