Agartala, August 27(TIWN): Sixty more fishes died at Kalyansagar, ‘divine waterbody’ of the Tripurasundari temple in Udaipur sub-division as pollution levels in the pond ecology keeps deteriorating by the day.

Tripurasundari temple, one of the 51 Hindu shaktipithas of the country, hit environmentalists’ voice earlier in 2013 since the IUCN declared the N nigricans – soft shell turtles, commonly known as Boshtami turtles as ‘extinct from the wild’.

The turtle is said to be living in Kalyansagar and Syed Baizad Bashtami’s mazaar in Bangladesh alone.

The turtle species stopped breeding following degeneration of pond ecology due to prolonged stagnation since the pond banks were cemented in the early 2000 as a move to stop contamination of the pond water.

Thirty dead fishes surfaced in Kalyansagar on Tuesday. Further raising concerns, around sixty more fishes were found dead in the waterbody today.

Speaking about the issue, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Udaipur) Ajit Debnath said that officials from the sub-divisional administration and Department of Fisheries visited the affected waterbody. A team of officials led by Deputy Superintendent of Fisheries Swapan Das was collected samples of water and dead fishes for further examination, he said.

The official further said that a high level expert delegation from the Department of Fisheries would be visiting Kalyansagar on August 28 to assess the pollution levels and possibilities of restoration.