Fishes found dead in historic temple pond

HAJO: Twenty-seven more fishes were found floating today in the Vishnupushkar Sarobar pond in the historic Hayagriva Madhab temple here in Assam's Kamrup (rural) district taking the number of dead fish recovered from the pond to 85 since yesterday.

The recovery also led to large scale protests in the area with people calling for swift action to save the aquatic life at the historic spot. Local residents found the fishes floating yesterday in the pond, which is home to about 1,200 fishes and 500 tortoises.
Teams from the Assam pollution control board and the forensic laboratory visited the place and collected samples of the water and bodies of fishes for testing, official sources said. While the exact cause was yet to be ascertained, sources in fisheries department said the aquatic creatures died due to lack of oxygen as the water in the pond had become stagnant due to lack of rainfall over the last few months.

Meanwhile, local residents and members of the All Assam Students' Union held a protest outside the circle office in Hojai today. They handed over a memorandum to chief minister Tarun Gogoi via the local officials, demanding action for the conservation of the water body and aquatic life.

The district administration has installed four pumps in the vicinity of the pond to flush out the stagnant water and pump in fresh water. Hajo, about 24 kilometres from Guwahati, is famed for Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist shrines with the historic Hayagriva Madhava Mandir.