National Green Tribunal probes fish deaths in Indrayani River: Dehu Nagar Panchayat faces environmental fines | Pune News

Pune: National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench in Pune has issued direction Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to file an affidavit within two weeks explaining, among other things, the amount of the charges compensation for environmental damage which will be levied on Dehu Nagar panchayat, and for what period, in respect of pollution of Indrayani river water, resulting in repeated cases of fish kill.
The affidavit should also specify whether any prosecution has been filed against Dehu Nagar panchayat in the past for not taking steps to mitigate the problem as “the occurrence of fish mortality is not new but has happened before,” the court said. Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh and expert member Vijay Kulkarni said this in an order on Monday (November 25).
On October 14, the Pune bench of the Green Tribunal had directed MPCB, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) at Andheri in Mumbai and the Pune District Collector to submit written responses on the issue to serve. This was after the NGT’s top bench in New Delhi took suo motu cognizance of a TOI report titled “Hundreds of fish found dead in Indrayani river near Dehu” published on March 15 this year and had heard the matter referred to bank in Pune.
On Monday, MPCB said that officials of the administration and Dehu Nagar Panchayat visited the concerned location on March 14 and observed that large scale fish kill was taking place in Indrayani river near Kapur Nalla and Ghat area as the water was contaminated with sewage. found during sample research. Previously, fish kill incidents occurred at the same location in June 2023.
“There are two major nullahs, namely Kapur nullah and the one near the ghat, which need to be treated before entering the Indrayani river. The sample of river water at Dehu Ghat also does not meet the river quality standard,” the board said in its report. written response. After issuing several notices to the panchayat in this regard, the local body officials stated that a sewage treatment plant would be constructed at the site.
The NGT bench said, “We are not satisfied with the above-mentioned reply of respondent No. 1-MPCB as the progress thereafter has not been mentioned in it, when Dehu Nagar panchayat asked for submission of the action plan and whether the same is by the respondent respondent received or not. We also do not find in this reply any affidavit regarding the amount of Environmental Damage Compensation (EDC) to be levied from Dehu Nagar panchayat and the period of the same is also not made clear in this affidavit.”
Massive fish kills
In a report submitted to the NGT bench in Pune, the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) at Andheri in Mumbai said that mass fish kills are often observed in lakes and rivers during the early morning hours, usually due to low levels of dissolved oxygen as consequence of A significant increase in anthropogenic inputs and untreated or partially treated sewage released into rivers accelerate hypoxia and eutrophication processes.
Other contributing factors include elevated levels of ammonia, nitrite, algae blooms, diseases and sudden changes in water temperature. Fish in water bodies are likely to avoid adverse environmental conditions to overcome a harmful environment. However, if a large portion of water bodies are suddenly affected, fish cannot absorb the ecological stress and move, resulting in mass mortality.
The key authority is the District Fisheries Development Officer of the Maharashtra Department of Fisheries who has to deal with this case. In this particular case, no representative of the ICAR-Central Institute for Fisheries Education was physically summoned to inspect the incident sites of mass fish kills, making it not possible to provide a definitive explanation for the cause of the occurrence in this case. case, the report said.