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ICAR-CIFRI Conducts Series of Ranching Programme under NMCG by Women Fishers of Balagarh, Hooghly

Barrackpore, 31^st May, 2024
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore under its flagship Namami Gange project continued the National Ranching Program III at Balagarh, Hooghly, West Bengal towards conservation and restoration of river Ganga. The main objective of the river ranching is to replenish the depleted fish stocks of river Ganga. To date, ICAR-CIFRI has ranched more than one crore of fish fingerlings of Indian Major Carps in several sites across four states of the country. In the Balagarh and Somra Bazar stretch of West Bengal ICAR-CIFRI has ranched more than 12 lakhs of fish fingerlings in nine different ranching events from 2017. Recent studies has shown an increase of 8% in the total catch of Rohu, Catla, Mrigal and Calbasu in the stretch.

In continuation of this, a ranching cum awareness programme was organized on two consecutive days from May 30, to 31, 2024 at Balagarh and Somra Bazar stretch of river Ganga in district Hooghly, West Bengal under the presence of Dr. Basanta Kumar Das, Director ICAR-CIFRI and PI NMCG project. A total of 6.08 lakhs artificially bred wild fish germplasm of Rohu, Catla and Mrigal seeds (IMC) was released into the river by the local fishers and women of the area. Indigenous Olive Barb fishes (Puntius sarana) were also released besides IMC. The ranching efforts of CIFRI was highly supported by the local fisher community for boosting the livelihood of the fishermen beside conservation of native fishes.

Besides ranching, a meeting was also held between Director ICAR CIFRI and the local fishers for upscaling of conservation in the area. Dr. Das also highlighted about the riverine pollution particularly about the plastics pollution in the river and urged the localites for holistic conservation. In this present program, active participation was noticed among all the sections of the society. Besides this, more than 120 number of fishers including women fishers also took part in the event and were sensitized regarding Ganga rejuvenation and restoration of prized Gangetic fishes.