A factory in Mumbai which allegedly dumped dye into the Kasadi river has been shut down after the waste in the water dyed the fur of dogs in the region blue, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board Sub-Regional Officer Jayant Hajare told
AFP on Tuesday. Images of blue-coloured canines had surfaced on social media on August 11.
“We have shut down the erring firm after it was found that they were flouting norms and endangering animals in the vicinity,” Hajare said, adding that officials were also monitoring the health of the canines.
Arati Chauhan, who runs the Navi Mumbai Animal Protection Cell, had filed a complaint with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board about animals in the Mumbai suburb’s Taloja industrial area suffering because of untreated in the Kasadi river.
Chauhan said dogs and birds had turned blue after swimming in the contaminated water.
“We managed to take one dog for treatment as it was suffering with eye infection,” she told AFP. “The bizzare incident brought to the forefront the dangers posed by these firms which fail to comply with environmental norms.”
A number of pharmaceutical, food and engineering factories in the area had been accused of pouring untreated chemicals directly into the Kasadi river.
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