Industry pollutants in river kills cattle and fishes in Bihar

People living along Manusmara river in Bihar's Sitamarhi district dread kala pani --the river water turned dark red or black with effluents. This lifeline now kills their cattle and fish, causes infection and disease and ruins their farms. "People have stopped using river water," says Bhupendra Narayan Singh of Athri village in Runnisaidpur block. It is neither fit for drinking nor for irrigation.

The source of pollution is a distillery unit at Panchhaur village in Riga block, not far from the Nepal border. Though a "zero-discharge mill" on paper, Riga Sugar Mill and Distillery located just 10 metres from the river, discharges wastewater into it at night twice or thrice a week, say people. The impact is visible till Runnisaidpur, 40 km downstream, as the river changes its colour, adds P K Jha, a resident of the adjacent Belsand block.

The river, also known as the old Bagmati, flows in a narrow channel up to Belsand, beyond which it spreads and loses its course, engulfing large chunks of fertile land in Runnisaidpur. The current is negligible here, so discharged effluents tend to accumulate (see map Destructive course). "In the kala pani -impacted area, the yield of sesame, mango and jackfruit is badly affected," says Singh, former senator of Rajendra Agricultural University, Samastipur.