diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
index c7a8f2e840..77446a1425 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/CHANGES.txt
@@ -582,6 +582,9 @@ Release 2.0.5-beta - UNRELEASED
     HDFS-4745. TestDataTransferKeepalive#testSlowReader has race condition that
     causes sporadic failure. (Chris Nauroth via suresh)
 
+    HDFS-4768. File handle leak in datanode when a block pool is removed.
+    (Chris Nauroth via suresh)
+
 Release 2.0.4-alpha - UNRELEASED
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataBlockScanner.java b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataBlockScanner.java
index cf80c99a58..f9f8d328b4 100644
--- a/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataBlockScanner.java
+++ b/hadoop-hdfs-project/hadoop-hdfs/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hdfs/server/datanode/DataBlockScanner.java
@@ -267,7 +267,10 @@ public synchronized void addBlockPool(String blockPoolId) {
   }
   
   public synchronized void removeBlockPool(String blockPoolId) {
-    blockPoolScannerMap.remove(blockPoolId);
+    BlockPoolSliceScanner bpss = blockPoolScannerMap.remove(blockPoolId);
+    if (bpss != null) {
+      bpss.shutdown();
+    }
     LOG.info("Removed bpid="+blockPoolId+" from blockPoolScannerMap");
   }