Hundreds of fish dead in artificial Gorewada lake, zoo orders probe

Nagpur: A team patrolling the Gorewada Unit 2 forest area on Monday morning were shocked to see hundreds of dead fish floating in the artificial lake. The mysterious and eerie turn of events led to higher ups getting involved as the cause of such en masse death of acquatic life needed to be solved.S Bhagwat, project in-charge of the Gorewada zoo, said, "We have sent the fish and water sample for testing.We will get more details after the results are back from the lab."He added that the lake was constructed around six years ago, and the water there comes from small streams, popularly known as nullahs, from nearby Dabha and Lava area. Apart from this, rainwater too fills up the lake in which fish abound. With the area being a protected forest, no fishing is allowed which leads to the fish population growing.However, what caused this mass wipeout is unknown though certain things have been ruled out. Bhagwat said, "Prima facie, it does not look like a case of poisoning because that is accompanied by a foul smell. Also, nobody comes here since the natural forest has a boundary wall."Also, the water was tested just three weeks ago as part of a routine check and nothing out of the ordinary was found.So, whether there was some infection which spread, or lack of oxygen in the lake due to growth of some weeds are questions that remain to be answered. Another thing could be that the source of the water coming from outside is contaminated. All eyes are now on the lab results which will shed light on the real cause.