ES Newsdesk

ITANAGAR/SEPPA, Nov 19: It is 22 days since the Kameng River suddenly turned black leading to the death of thousands of fish on October 29 last. Despite the passage of three weeks the turbidity remains more or less the same with a slight improvement.
The turbidity in the Kameng River has improved marginally, informed Divisional Forest Officer, Vikas Swami (IFS). “The actual report on the quality of the river is yet to be ascertained because the experts from Itanagar have taken samples for testing and results are yet to be released. However, on physical visit, we have found that there is marginal improvement in the river," added the DFO.
Though Swami informed that with the support of NGOs and local denizens, administration has restricted any kind of fishing in the Kameng River however it is reliably  learnt that people around Seppa in Pacha river are still fishing with large traditional traps.
Speaking to Eastern Sentinel,  Independent  Researcher Chintan Sheth who has been studying the phenomenon since Day one and currently is at Seppa assisting the administration says "It seems like turbidity is improving. But the fish population has crashed which means the river is far from recovered." 
He added, the landslide upstream on the Wapra Bung river has reduced its activity but is perhaps still ongoing albeit at a much smaller scale. We have one clear satellite image from Thursday  but it's not easy to interpret what kind of risk remains in the river. It's difficult to interpret if there is any blockage of the glacier or not, Sheth claims. 
The satellite images also show that the debris flow events took out hundreds of trees and the riverside vegetation will take a long long time to recover.  We need more time to say how old the vegetation was to interpret the frequency of such events, Sheth said.
"We are asking alot of questions to understand this event comprehensively and we need time to answer them correctly," the researcher adds.
"Though the state government has constituted a committee to study the incident,even aerial  survey was done but we are demanding the state to reach the exact location of the place of occurrence  to identify the actual reason behind the high turbidity in the Kameng River," said President All East Kameng District Students Union(AEKDSU) Chakang Yangda.
He also, informed that their team is creating awareness in all the villages to stop using any kind of traditional fishing trap in the tributaries of the Kameng River to conserve the aquatic life.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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