Monsoon is here and it’s the season of the queen of fish — hilsa — but the silver beauty may vanish from tables with time if the fishing community is not sensitised about the need to conserve Gangetic fishes, including the prized hilsa, and dolphins. The awareness call came at the National Ranching Programme held at Mukteshwar Ghat in Sahibganj, Jharkhand, recently.
B.K. Das, the director of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR) - Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), spoke about the need for conservation of Gangetic fishes and dolphins in eastern India at the programme launched by the ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore.
Das called on fishermen to become flag-bearers in the efforts to conserve Gangetic fishes and dolphins. The ICAR-CIFRI has released 58 lakh fish seeds in different locations along the Ganga in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, he said.
ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore, released two lakh wild fish germplasm of Indian major carps (Labeo rohita, Labeo catla and Cirrhinus mrigala) and Labeo calbasu in the Ganga at Mukteshwar Ghat, Sahibganj, Jharkhand, under the National River Ranching Programme on August 2.
The programme was inaugurated by Ramniwas Yadav, deputy commissioner, Sahibganj district of Jharkhand, and attended by the district fisheries officers, Sahibganj, and Ashok Choudhury, chairman (Jharkhand Eastern Gangetic Cooperative Society Limited), and more than hundred fishermen. The programme was coordinated by Raju Baitha and Mitesh H. Ramteke, scientists at Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute.
Yadav said river ranching programmes are aimed at rejuvenating the declining stocks of Indian major carps and other fishes that will help in improvement of their catch for better livelihood of the fishermen community. He also spoke on the importance of ranching and conservation and their impact on the socio-economic development of the fishers’ community of the river Ganga.