CIFRI Awards
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) programme organized awareness programme on “Hilsa conservation and improvement” for more than 1000 fishermen of Ballia (Uttar Pradesh), Buxar, Patna and Bhagalpur (Bihar), Sahebganj (Jharkhand) and Malda (West Bengal), in the middle stretch of river Ganga. During 1955-72, Hilsa was recorded with an average of 48.4 t at Allahabad in river Ganga. Soon after the establishment of the Farakka Barrage in 1975, a drastic decline of hilsa catch has been noticed in the middle stretches of river Ganga, indicating the obstruction of migratory path could be one of the factors for the cause. Realizing the importance, a total of 151 hilsa with average weight of 259gm were ranched from the hilsa ranching station at Farakka, during Dec. 2018 to Mar. 2019. In continuation, awareness programmes were organised in the middle stretch of river Ganga from Farakka (W.B) to Ballia (U.P) during April to May, 2019 under the leadership of Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI. Fishermen dependent on riverine fish catch and fish traders were invited to share their experience on fish catch particularly on Hilsa, in river and in market, since last three to four decades. While, ICAR-CIFRI shared the past and present research activities on Hilsa, especially on the availability of hilsa during 1970s, conservational measures of hilsa and ranching programme activities being carried out in the river Ganga above Farakka barrage. Interestingly, fishermen from Ballia, Patna, Bhagalpur and Sahebganj reported that since last three decades, they had never caught hilsa but they were surprised to catch hilsa of 150g to 200g with very less number (one or two) during January and first week of May, 2019. These early findings and reports from the fishermen and fish traders have opened up for detailed investigation and underlined for more awareness programmes to be carried out in the middle stretches of river Ganga for Hilsa population re-establishment.
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