Kochi: While the State Pollution Control Board has been rigorously taking pollution control measures in the industrial areas of Eloor and Edayar, fresh instances of massive fish death are being reported from Pathalam.

Hundreds of fish were found dead last week near Pathalam. PCB officials claimed the fish death was due to the reduced level of dissolved oxygen in river water which was caused by closing the sand bund at Pathalam.

“As the polluted river water gets stagnated with no way to flow out to the sea, organic matter in the water will decay causing decrease in dissolved oxygen. However, we’ll conduct a detailed study on other possible reasons for the fish death,” said K.Sajeevan, PCB Chairman.

However, environmentalists brushed aside the PCB’s claim that the fish had died due to oxygen starvation and alleged that the dumping of toxic effluent from industrial units had caused the fish death.

According to green activists, the pollution control measures taken by the PCB including the recently set up river monitoring station at Eloor, had failed to check the effluent discharge from industrial units.

“The PCB is being silent over the unchecked toxic effluent discharge from the 18 companies in the Eloor – Edayar region. Though we’ve submitted details of the chemical discharge from each company, the PCB is least concerned in taking any follow-up action,” said Purushan Eloor of Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi.

However, according to the PCB chairman, industrial pollution was not the reason for fish deaths as the phenomenon was reported from areas where there were no industrial units and the ones functioning near Pathalam had slowed down production.