Shillong, Apr 20 : The official probe into the fish
deaths at a river near Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya has
ruled out exploratory drilling for uranium as the cause of the
deaths, officials said today.
Geologists R B Surong and E Nongbri submitted their
report to the state government today.
"The findings of the report has clearly stated that the
death of fish occurred only in river Kynshi and not in river
Rilang which are the two river sources that converge at
Ranikor river," Deputy Chief Minister B M Lanong told
reporters.
Elaborating more on the findings of the probe, Lanong
said the water flowing from Wah Rilang was "crystal clear"
while the water from Kynshi was found to be "muddy, reddish
brown in colour and having lots of impurities".
Lanong, who also holds charge of Mining & Geology
department, quoted the report saying, "Contamination may be
due to the presence of a number of tributaries flowing from
various areas having coal mines and coal depot from villages
like Maweit, Diengngan, Mawhar and Nongjri besides others."
"The dead fish did not show any marks on the body of fish
which should be the effect of uranium radiation," Lanong said.
Experts also argued that if it is attributed to mining of
coal and other minerals, the impact should have been seen the
whole year through and not only on a specific day.
The report further stated that another possibility may be
due to toxicity of the river where local people use toxic
substances for catching fishes for commercial purposes, the
Deputy Chief Minister said.
The probe also recommended a detailed investigation to
ascertain the cause of death of fishes.
"Analysing of the water sample and post-mortem of the
dead fishes and other necessary examination needs to be done
by experts and well equipped laboratories in order to
ascertain the death of fishes," Lanong said.
Meanwhile, water samples from rivers in West Khasi Hills
district have been collected for further testing.
Several thousand fish were found floating dead at Ranikor
river, some 140 km from here, last Friday.
The fish deaths have created a panic among residents and
NGO blamed the exploratory drilling of uranium in the upstream
as the reason behind the incident.