Hundreds of fishes die due to disposal of plastic waste at Pathsala

PATHSALA: At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the people to make India free from single-use plastic, unabated disposal of plastic by locals at the Bisharnala Jan at Pathsala in the newly-created Bajali district has raised concerns among conscious citizens as fishes have died due to food poisoning by the disposal of waste plastic. Hundreds of fishes were found floating dead in 'Bisharnala Jan, triggering an alarm that the water has been poisoned.

Hundreds of cattle drink water from the water body to quench their thirst. The residents fear the spread of diseases from the rotting fish. They said that animals and birds that drink from the river would die if the water was poisoned. Nature lovers, who are angry over the incident, said that the people behind the poisoning of the area should be punished.

Bisharnala is a small spring flowing through Pathsala town. The people of the locality take pride in this creation of nature. But due to a section of people who dump garbage in the Bisharnala Jan regularly, it has turned into a dumping ground and is losing its beauty. Though various organizations of the locality have been generating awareness among people not to throw waste materials in the 'Jan', the efforts seem to have gone in vain.

Few days ago, dead fishes were floating in 'Bisharnala Jan'. The district administration must initiate action against all those who are responsible, the locals urged. However, no officials from the local administration have visited the spot yet. Locals said that the fish must have died due to heavy pollution in the water bodies around the 'Jan'.

Brand ambassador of the forest and environment department, Ananda Khataniar said that at a time when the Central Government, as well as the State Government, was working towards making the country clean, the people here were polluting the water of the rivulet.

"Every household generates garbage that should be thrown but only in trash bins. Throwing garbage in 'Bisharnala Jan' contaminates the environment," said Ananda Khataniar.

"The people should come forward to make the atmosphere healthy and clean so as to beautify Pathsala town," said local resident and nature lover Jintu Talukdar. "Some locals and private schools always dump plastic in the water body due to which many fishes have died recently. Some businessmen of Pathsala have many plots of land to set up buildings for their business, but they don't have a single plot of land to dispose off waste plastic," Talukdar added.

"The authorities should provide a separate plot of land to be used as a dumping ground so that the town remains clean," he said.