Biswaranjan Paital* and Georgina A. Rivera-Ingraham
High speed urbanization is usually accompanied by pollutants being released into the environment hampering the health of the aquatic ecosystems. This calls for the urgent need to establish appropriate measures to counteract ecological disturbances. Even though this is happening in many parts of the world, it is especially notable in developing countries such as India, where the rate of urbanization is very high. Run-off waters cause pollutants to accumulate in nearby aquatic bodies and sometimes lead to unexpected and sudden changes in the state of trophic levels. How such increases in the magnitude of environmental stressors and pollutants lead to massive die-off events is the central story of this short article. In the context of this alarming situation, a recent episode of massive fish death in Bata river of Odisha state (India) is discussed to highlight the alarming situation of this area, aiming to attract the attention of both Governments and ecological managers to put in place counter measure plans to avoid such events from occurring in the future.
