Pune Municipal Garden pond turns mass grave for fishes

In a freak incident, hundreds of fishes and birds were found dead on Tuesday morning in a Pune based Municipal Garden pond.

The pond which turned mass graveyard for fishes

The incident took place at Hazrat Siddique Shah Baba Udyan which is built by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is near Pune railway station. It is spread over acre of land and has a small pond with a fountain in it. The process of removing dead fishes is going on but still the reason of mass death of fish is unclear.

Preeti Sinha, Assistant Superintendent of the Garden department of PMC said, "The reason for this incident cannot be ascertained as of now but we have collected the water sample from the pond to be tested and have sent it to the corporation laboratory for analysis. The reason will be clear after the expert's report and water testing report. Our committee members has also inspected the area."

The fishes were carried away

Mangesh Dhighe, PMC's environment officer in-charge, said, "This is an unfortunate incident but it might be due to the decreased water level of the pond due to summer. We are as of now assuming two possible theories - it might be due change in climatic conditions and second, low levels of bio-oxygen-demand (BOD) in the water. From past incidences, we think it might have happened due to the hyacinth influx and low levels of BOD in the water that exists."