Scores of dead fish surface at holy pond of shrine

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 25

Tempers flared at ancient Bhagwan Valmiki Temple in the Ram Tirath area near here after scores of fish were found dead due to low water level.

While criticising the state government and other departments, Mahant Manjit Giri, Jagtar and Avtar said it was due to lax attitute on part of agencies that the minimum water level to ensure delivery of oxygen for fish was not maintained.

Expressing resentment they threatened to launch agitation in case the government did no pay attention to the problem.

Giri said the six-feet-level came down to just three feet as the water was not released today. He said evaporation caused by continuous heat wave condition for the past few days reduced the water in the holy pond to dangerously low level in which fish could not survive.

Officials of the PWD, Fishery Department and the construction company engaged in raising new building for the temple visited the spot after the matter was brought to the notice of the district administration. They also offered feed in the fish pond.

According to officials preliminary investigations indicated that fish may have died because of biological oxygen demand (BOD) as sufficient water had been drained out from the holy tank.

They said the respiratory system of a fish, especially common carp, seemed to have chocked because of the depleted water.

Earlier, thousands of fish in the holy tank of ancient Ram Tirath Temple had died in 2004.

Ram Tirath Temple is a heritage site where Bhagwan Valmiki wrote the sacred ‘Ramayana’. The temple is also the birth place of Luv and Kush, sons of Lord Rama.

At present, the state government has started an ambitious project of developing ancient hermitage of Bhagwan Valmiki into a tourist hub.

A magnificent temple building with elaborate infrastructure is being raised at a cost of Rs 200 crore at the site, situated over 10 km from Amritsar.

Keeping in view the popularity of the shrine among the Valmiki community, the SAD-BJP coalition government had laid the foundation stone to raise Bhagwan Valmiki Temple in 2013.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has chaired many meetings to speed up work of the project.

Meanwhile, the district administration swung into action after learning about the unsavoury development.