(a) whether a large number of fish die every year in the sea due to water pollution and related problems;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Ministry has conducted any study in this regard; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard?
MINSITER OF THE STAT EIN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRI A. RAJA)
(a) to (d) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLOY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 391
DUE FOR REPLY ON 30.04.07 REGARDING WATER POLLUTION IN SEA BY ADV. (SHRIMATI) P. SATHEEDEVI
(a) & (d) As per the information of Ministry of Agriculture, no specific cases of mass fish
mortality have been reported. However there have been some isolated instances of firh
mortality observed in the sea on the south-west coast of the country. In September 2004,
there were two instances of fish mortality, one at Tangesseri near Kollam and at Vizhinjam
near Trivandrum in Kerala. Another instance of fish mortality was reported off Mumbai
coast during October, 2005. The precise cause for these incidents have not been established.
(c) & (d) The Department of Ocean Development, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) regularly
monitors the health of coastal water quality under a national coordinated research
programme on “Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System (COMAPS)†with the active
participation of reputed national research and development laboratories including coastal
State Universities. Wherever necessary, investigations are also undertaken by National
Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR), institutes like Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI),
Kochi, Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai and other organizations.
India is a party to the marine pollution (MARPOL) international agreement, under which
various actions are required to be taken by all ships.