National
Fish dying in droves in Kamal Pokhari (In photos)
The fish that were relocated to Kamal Pokhari from Rani Pokhari about 13 months ago suddenly began dying in huge numbers. The dead fish were seen floating on the lake surface since Tuesday morning, locals said.Photos by: Surbindra Kumar Pun
The fish that were relocated to Kamal Pokhari from Rani Pokhari about 13 months ago suddenly began dying in huge numbers. The dead fish were seen floating on the lake surface since Tuesday morning, locals said.
According to the locals, there are three species of fish in Kamal Pokhari and the cat fish brought from Rani Pokhari accounts for the most among those dying. “Only around ten percent of cat fish that were brought from Rani Pokhari should be alive now,” said one local Singh Bahadur Tamang, “Now we rarely see the fish that used to swim freely and those which are alive also are not so active.”
Locals suspect that the fish could have died because of some poisonous chemicals dumped into the pond through the pipelines connected to the pond.
Meanwhile, local youths have been collecting the dead fish from the pond. They are using boats to gather the dead fish that have surfaced. However, with the authorities failing to manage the dead fish one can smell the stench of the carcass in the area around the pond.
The Kathmandu Metropolitan City had relocated the fish from Ranipokhari to Kamalpokhari in December, 2016. Prior to that, the KMC had relocated the fish form Rani Pokhari to Balaju Baisdhara Park.