A large number of fish and other marine animals have started dying near the fishing jetty adjacent to Gopalpur port in Ganjam district of Odisha.
Since Monday morning, dead fish and other sea animals have started floating near the jetty. According to local fishermen, this has happened after two continuous days of rain.
Last year too a similar incident had occurred at the coast in August. A team of experts from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in Puri had made an on-the-spot enquiry and also taken water samples to test for possible toxicity. But the CMFRI report is yet to be made public.
Environmental activist Prafulla Samantra suspects that the mass death during the rainy season since 2016 must be due to some toxic waste reaching the sea. He demanded that the Odisha government make the CMFRI report public. “It seems the government is protecting some organisation by not making the report available for discussion and analysis,” he said.
Mr. Samantra said the deaths may be due to release of poisonous effluents from industrial units into the sea. Dumping of residual fertilizer into the sea by some ships at Gopalpur port and seepage of urea residue from godowns may also be a reason, he added.
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