Details

Written by: Press Trust of Kashmir

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 04 March 2019

SRINAGAR: Fish in Central Kashmir Ganderbal district are being killed mercilessly and on a mass scale by the use of bleaching powder, the sale of which is banned. According reports, the fish are being caught illegally in Nallah Sindh in Hayan area of Kangan stretch and some persons are allegedly using hazardous chemicals to kill the fish.

Villagers told speaking to News agency Press Trust of Kashmir that many time they saw dead fish floating on the water. “After killing thousands of fish, nobody came to take them. I think it’s a criminal conspiracy,” said a local resident. They also added that last year the powder was used by unknown men resulting in death of thousands of fish. They said that no case was lodged in the matter.

According to sources, the bleaching power is not sold in the open market but is available only with the PHE department for treatment of drinking water. "For the past several years, we are continuously asking the department to look into this illegal use of bleaching powder. But there is not much progress in the matter”. The fish are being killed by bleaching powder every year in Kangan as the concerned watch like mute spectators. Interestingly bleaching powder is available with PHE Deptt for water purification and is not available in open market.

Sources said that compounded by the lackadaisical approach of the Fisheries Department whose field staffers were unable to tackle it. Hundreds of kgs of fish were killed in Sindh nallah in Hayan every year but nobody care about this. The bleaching powder cases de-oxygenation in water and fish die due to it and are caught by the miscreants who sell them in market at a very high prize. During this process small fish also get killed and the use of bleaching powder kills entire population of fish in an area where the bleaching powder is used.

From last several years bleaching powder is being used by fish smugglers in different parts of Kangan areas. The fisheries guards who are posted in the area are not at all seen allege the locals. “If people find any person using bleaching power, we request them to contact the department. Most of the times, law violators do it in odd hours but people also don’t inform us, which paves the way for these criminals,” Aslam lamented.

Experts from the fisheries department said that despite people knowing that the use of bleaching power is a crime, they repeatedly use it to kill fish, that too in odd hours. “The use of the powder has heavily polluted the water, shrunk the fish population and other species living in the water,” said Javid Ahmad Lone, a fisheries department expert.

“The sale of bleaching powder is banned in the market and only public health engineering (PHE) department has access to it. We feel there are some leaks in the department,” an official of the fisheries department confirmed News agency Press Trust of Kashmir. When contact AD Fisheries, Ganderbal he said “I don’t have any information about this as I join office yesterday”. He added “I will confirm all this and action will be taken”.