Bhopal: After the death of thousands of fishes at Lower Lake in November 2015 due to water toxicity crossing all levels, the death of 10-12 years old tortoise on Tuesday, has once again brought the cleaning work by Bhopal Municipal Corporation and their concern for aquatic lives in Lower Lake under the scanner.

At about 3:30pm, huge numbers of people were seen peeping inside the State Veterinary Hospital at jail road, which is not a common sight usually. The reason was a huge tortoise weighing over two quintals was brought in the premises from Lower lake for post-mortem.

Ranger, flying squad of forest department, R. K. Shukla, said, “We got the information from principal of Hamidia Girls College, who reported that a tortoise has surfaced in lower lake at about 11:30am. When we reached the spot, it was a 5-6 day dead body of tortoise which couldn’t bear the brunt of toxicity in Lower Lake.”

According to the flying squad members who got the body fished out from lower lake said, this is unusual and rare to find a dead tortoise here. It weighs in quintals and is about three and a half feet long.

Although the post-mortem reports says it’s a natural death, but as the life of the creature is supposed to be about hundred years, environmentalists have raised the questions over it. To be mentioned here, there were no injuries spotted on the body.

Environmentalist, Subhash C. Pandey who is already fighting over toxicity in water bodies in Bhopal said, “This seems to be an alarming situation now. If a huge aquatic animal can die of toxicity and could not bear the brunt, think about the fishes. Authorities need to be on board now. I will put the case before National Green Tribunal soon. ”

“The authorities have also stated the report that the oxygen level in water has been found nil at several places due to toxicity. They need to check the complete lower lake now.” He added while talking to TOI.

Pertinent to mention here, earlier to the incident of dead fishes in lower lake found after Navratri idol immersion, Dead fishes had surfaced in Shahpura Lake too, after Ganesh visarjan.

3 Peacocks electrocuted in Bhauri area:

After bringing huge tortoise to Veterinary hospital, for postmortem, dead bodies of three national birds were brought by flying squad. According to the officials, they died after being electrocuted while flying and touching high tension wire. According to the sources, there could be an angle of poaching of the bird too Information was given by locals to the squad.

Facebook Twitter Linkedin EMail