By Yadavindra S Rana :
HAMIRPUR (HP)—Golden Mahseer is not only food for many but also a source of income of livelihood for thousands of families in Himachal Pradesh. At present, 10893 families are involved in captive fisheries in the state out of which 5883 families are involved in riverine while 5010 families are involved in fish catches in reservoirs area.
“Tigers of the water “ also known as golden mahseer that have suffered severe population declines in much of its distribution range and declared endangered by the Washington-based International Union of Conservation of natural resources because of pollution, habitat loss and over-fishing. Initiatives of the Himachal Pradesh government to save Golden Mahseer from extinction starts paying dividends. The state government has launched a conservation plan to improve the population of this fish in the reservoirs and rivers of Himachal Pradesh.
Mahseer farm at Machhial in Mandi District through artificial breeding in captivity has proved a success. The state government is setting up a new Mahseer hatchery-cum-carp breeding unit at Sunni in district Shimla with an estimated cost of Rs 296.97 lakh to develop methods of breeding under safe conditions in hatcheries. It will go a long way in strengthening the fish farm infrastructure in the state. Himachal Pradesh has become a leading state of the Mahseer fish production in the country. An estimated 10-12 thousand records highest hatching is expected during this year out of 41450 eggs produced in this year so far.
The state recorded 20900, 28700 and 41450 Mahseer fish egg production in the year 2017-18, 2018-19 and year 2019-20 (till now) respectively. The state has recorded the highest 45.311 MT Mahseer catches in the year 2018-2019 which is one of the finest sport-fish and a source of recreation to innumerable sportsmen both Indian and foreigner. The state recorded Mahseer production from Gobind Sagar (16.182 MT), Koldam (0.275 MT), Pong Dam (28.136 MT) and Ranjeet Sagar (0.718 MT) respectively in the year 2018-19 respectively.
Animal husbandry and Fisheries Minister Virender Kanwar said that the state government was taking various effective steps like the release of 15 percent of water discharge from hydroelectricity power during the lean season, conservation of fish through regular patrolling and implementation of the close season to promote the fish production in the state.
He said the Mahseer fish was found in around 500 km area of the hill state out of total of 3000 km rivers out of which 2400 km constitute general water.
Mahseer is one of the best sports fish which attracts anglers from different parts of the world. It belongs to the Tor family and is migratory in nature and travels long distances during monsoon upstream in search of an ecologically suited place for breeding containing high dissolved oxygen in the water.
He further said that the government’s main focus was artificial breeding of Mahseer its conservation and ranching of the river system with Mahseer seed to promote eco-tourism. There are many natural Mahseer sanctuaries called Machhial in the state water where it is conserved spiritually by the people and department of fisheries also conserve the fish by applying fisheries Act and Rules strongly, he says and added that as many as six mobile vans have been used in mobile fish markets to market fishes and insulated boxes have also been provided to reservoir fishermen.