Kupwara: More than fourteen thousand fishes died due to the chemical that was sprayed into the Mawar Nallah in Langate area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, officials said.
They said some miscreants sprinkled chemicals in the stream resulting in damage to 14,305 fishes which amounts to 3500 quintals. “The total loss is around 14 lakh rupees,” he said.
Police has registered FIR and the investigation is on.
According to preliminary reports, during the intervening night of February 1 and 2, some miscreants sprinkled chemicals in the stream which supplies water to more than 80 villages.
The top officers from civil and police administration reached to the spot to access the situation.
Police version
Handwara Police in a statement said, “On a written complaint by Fisheries Division Handwara that on the intervening night of 1st/2nd Feb some miscreants added chemical in water inlet of Fishery farm at Kutleri Mawer. Subsequently fishes at the farm died.”
“In this context, FIR no 6/2018 US 428 RPC is lodged at PS Qalamabad and investigation taken up,” the statement said.
Police has requested public not to consume water from Mawar Nallah till it is cleaned.
They also requested people not to consume water from the lift pumps of Sherhama/Pohrupet/Panditpura.
Police and technical expert teams are on job to clean the contaminated water.
Meanwhile, Awami Itihad Party (AIP) president and MLA Langate Er Rasheed who also accessed the situation, said, “After the preliminary investigation of officers from PHE and other departments, we observed that some persons from local army unit had mistakenly thrown some expired chemicals in the Mawar Nallah.”
He said people should not panic as the contaminated water will be cleaned very soon.
