[1]A school of fish was found dead and floating at Muttar river, a tributary of the Periyar, on Thursday morning, creating panic in the area. It happened at Manjummel near the industrial belt of Eloor near the city.
Environmentalists alleged that massive fish kill happened because industries flushed out waste in the wake of the heavy summer rain over the last few days.
However, Pollution Control Board officials clarified that there was no discharge of any industrial waste in this part of the river.
The fish kill was owing to the depletion of dissolved oxygen in the waters. “We tested the waters and found that the dissolved oxygen levels were very low.
Also the water was blackish and flowed into the river through the Thoombangal stream running across uncultivated paddy fields in the area,” said an official.
It is suspected that the grass in the fields which dried this summer decayed in the continuous summer showers over the last few days. This led to the blackish colourisation of the water and the depletion of the dissolved oxygen, he said.
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