The dead fish floating in Rampally lake near Charlapally on Sunday

HYDERABAD: Residents of colonies around the sprawling Rampally lake woke up to the sight of thousands of floating dead fish on Sunday morning. Nearly, 30,000 rohu, bochha (katla), bangaru theega and koramenu (red snapper ) species were killed in the latest incident at the lake located about 30 km from the city, authorities said.

A week ago about 40,000 dead fish were found floating in Shamirpet lake, while over 20,000 were found floating in Medchal lake earlier.

Officials blamed heat. “Fish are sensitive and high temperatures make it difficult to survive. That apart, the dissolved oxygen level in water is also less,“ said E Balaiah , district fisheries officer, Medak. Experts accused authorities of not planting enough trees to lower temperature in the area. Moreover, the alarming levels of pollution in urban lakes around Hyderabad could be another reason for the recent spate of fish deaths.

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Fishermen's society in the area has been advised by officials to clean up the lake using lime, salt and turmeric mix, apart from removing all the dead fish and harvesting the estimated 1 lakh live fish still in the 110 acre lake.

“Lakes and tanks around city are becoming a deadly mix of domestic sewage, municipal waste and hazardous waste dumped irresponsibly by industries.When it rains, all this flows into lakes and tanks. Since these wastes contain all kinds of acids, plastics and chemicals, the subsequent reactions reduce the level of dis solved oxygen in water which makes it impossible for fish to survive,“ explained Professor K Purushotham Reddy , an environmental expert.

Fishermen too said that the lake was now highly polluted. “It's not just pollution from industries in the close vicinity but also increasing number of residential colonies release their waste into the lake. The deadly cocktail of drainage water mixed with industrial effluents released into Kapra and Nagaram lakes also ends up here as the three are interconnected,“ explained Laxman Eega, member of fishermen cooperative society , Rampally.

The surviving fish (an estimated 1lakh) might be dangerous for consumption warn experts. “What is dangerous for the fish is dangerous for us too, especially if the fish is from polluted lakes,“ Reddy said.



In Video: Watch: 30,000 dead fish floating in polluted Hyderabad lake