Thousands of fish were found dead along the Yamuna near Burari in North Delhi on October 14, prompting fresh concern over pollution, restricted river flows and the health of the capital’s remaining aquatic ecosystem. The fish were found washed ashore and floating in shallow water upstream of the Wazirabad Barrage, a stretch where similar mortality events have been reported previously.
Species including Tilapia and Common Carp were among those found dead. The New Delhi Nature Society, a nonprofit, shared photographs and videos of the incident on X on October 15. It reported that hundreds, possibly thousands, of fish had died, but the specific cause has not been established.
Bhim Singh Rawat, an expert on the Yamuna and a member of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, described the incident as particularly unusual because it occurred just after the monsoon season. He said recurring mass mortality in the Burari stretch was concerning and posed a serious threat to the river’s remaining aquatic biodiversity.
The incident has also drawn attention to wastewater flows entering the Yamuna from Haryana. Several drains in the state carry industrial and urban wastewater into the river, including the Dhanaura drain and drains numbered 2 and 8. These drains receive wastewater from areas including Karnal, Panipat and Sonipat before it reaches the Yamuna system.
Official records submitted in proceedings before the National Green Tribunal had identified 105 illegal discharge points leading to Drain No. 2 in Panipat. Of these, 48 were reported closed, while action against the remaining 57 was pending, according to the report. In November last year, the Haryana Chief Minister’s Flying Squad and the Haryana State Pollution Control Board intercepted 13 tractor-tankers and registered cases against 27 people over alleged illegal dumping of industrial waste in areas including Kurar, Chhajpur and Jalalpur.
The New Delhi Nature Society said locals had alleged that chemical waste was being discharged into the river from Haryana through canals. That allegation has not been independently verified, and no specific pollutant has been identified in the material available on the fish deaths. The society also raised a question about whether the incident could be linked to acid rain reported on October 12, but no such connection has been established.
The available accounts have also renewed concerns about environmental flows in the Yamuna. Rawat said the current flow rate was around 10 cubic metres per second, or cumecs, compared with average hourly inflows of approximately 300 cumecs at the Hathnikund barrage in Haryana. Lower flows can leave less water available to dilute wastewater, although the supplied report does not establish that restricted flow caused the latest fish deaths.
The Burari stretch recorded mass fish deaths in May last year as well. Earlier this year, hundreds of fish died at Sanjay Lake in East Delhi during a heatwave and as water levels receded. That incident was attributed to an interruption in the lake’s treated-water supply after a high-density polyethylene pipeline carrying 10 million gallons per day from the Delhi Jal Board’s nearby Kondli sewage treatment plant was severely damaged.
The latest Yamuna incident places the focus on the next official response, including any assessment of the water and fish mortality, action on identified discharge points and clarification of the cause of the deaths.
