Jubilee lake, the sprawling 20 acres aquatic landmark at Jubilee Park, on Tuesday presents a pathetic picture with aquatic weeds covering a major portion of the lake bed. A major portion of water body has turned green in colour with the unchecked growth of aquatic weeds.
Residents demand that the lake be desilted and deepened to facilitate more storage of water. The dense growth of the aquatic plants has led to risk of mosquito breeding due to stagnant water near the root of the floating grass and weeds and imminent threat to life of fishes. Meanwhile, hundreds of fish have died in the lake.
The deaths were caused due to decreasing dissolved oxygen level caused by dense vegetation of algae, toxic pollutants and sudden change of water due to evening showers.
“The death of fishes at Jubilee lake is matter of great concern. Failure of the authorities to purify the lake water is now having adverse impact on the health of fishes.
It is the duty of JUSCO to maintain it properly as it had a direct bearing on the flow of tourists and the economy of the city,” noted KK Sharma, head of zoology department at Jamshedpur Cooperative College and member Ornithological Society of India (Bihar-Jharkhand) On the other hand East Singhbhum district fishery officer, Arun Kumar, said that dense growth of weeds and water plants is a threat to aquatic life.
“Though aquatic plants growing in a restricted amount in ponds and lakes are beneficial for fish and wildlife but dense growth can cause night time oxygen depletion and fish kills. We will probe into the incident that led to the death of the fishes,” the officer said.
Jamshedpur Angling Club (JAC) has informed Tata Steel subsidiary JUSCO about threat perspective to aquatic life due to rapid growth of plants at
the lake. Taking onus on themselves the club has started spraying ‘Toximar’ which neutralises toxic binder for aquatic bodies since yesterday. But apparently, it was a bit late.
“We should have done it a bit earlier. The polluted water from the inlet which has been gushing to the lake from lake from Friday due to evening showers was the main reason for fish deaths,” said Bonjour.
JUSCO official admitted that fish death had happened due to toxic and polluted water entering into the water body from the inlets. However, he assured that steps would be taken to clean the lake.