TIRCHY: While the Aadi Perukku festival is getting closer, the Cauvery river bank in Tiruchy posed an environmental threat as several hundred fish were found dead and the environmental activists who raised concerns about the incident. They suspected toxic conditions, excess heat waves and poor water flow were the reasons behind the incident, while the civic staff started removing the dead fish on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, onlookers at Amma Mandapam bathing ghat in the Cauvery river banks in Tiruchy felt a foul smell and noticed several hundred fish lying dead along the bank amidst the garbage.
The locals said that the civic staff, along with the environmental activists, removed the garbage around the bathing ghat to spruce it up for the upcoming Aadi Perukku, which falls on August 3.
The incident on Tuesday raised eyebrows, and the environmental activists suspected the discharge of effluents and sewage into the river might have caused toxic conditions that killed the fish in the river.
“Last week, we removed a few tons of garbage mostly cloths from the Cauvery and there were a few dead fish and we learnt that the excess heat could have been the reason, but this time, the number of dead fish were more and we felt the need to study the situation,” said KC Neelamegam, Executive President, Theneer Organisation, an environmental organisation, Tiruchy.
He said that the people should come forward to protect the sacred river. The volunteers had been removing the garbage periodically, but still, the littering continues.
The information about the incident was passed on to the civic administration, and the staff who reached the spot commenced the cleansing job.