Maharashtra's factories making its rivers filthy, Pune worst offender

Pune attracted 45% of the notices (2,392 of 5,276) issued to polluting factories between 2011-2016

There was a time when Hanif S Parkar, a fisherman from Dhabol Khadi village in the coastal district of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, could net 25 different kinds of fish from Vashisthi, the local river.

For the past 25 years, factories in the neighbouring industrial belt of Lote Parshuram have been dumping untreated effluents in the river, destroying all living forms in it. The fish are dying and the river no longer offers a livelihood option for Parkar and others like him in the village.

“I now work as a daily wage worker and my wife