This year, on the morning after Sarvapitri Amavasya, the fish of Banganga floated up. Belly first. Silver turned grey. Municipal workers fished them out with nets and stuffed them into buckets. The smell will hang over Walkeshwar for days.

It is not new. It has happened before. Year after year. The cause is dull and chemical. Rice balls, flour, flowers and ghee go into the water. They rot. The rot eats the oxygen. The fish suffocate.