ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Barrackpore under its flagship Namami Gange project continues the National Ranching Program III at Balagarh, Hooghly, West Bengal towards the conservation and restoration of river Ganga.
The main objective of river ranching is to replenish the depleted fish stocks of river Ganga. To date, ICAR-CIFRI has ranched more than one crore 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 have 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 program was organized on two consecutive days from 30.05. 2024 to 31.05.2024 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 of 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 river ranching was supported by the local fishermen society at Balagarh primarily by the women members. The ranching efforts of CIFRI was highly supported by the local fisher community for boosting of livelihood of the fishermen besides the conservation of native fish.
Besides ranching, a meeting was also held between Director ICAR CIFRI and the local fishers for the upscaling of conservation in the area. Dr. Das also highlighted the riverine pollution, particularly the plastics pollution in the river, and urged the localities for holistic conservation. In this present program, active participation was noticed among all the sections of the society. Besides this, more than 120 fishers including women fishers also took part in the event and were sensitized regarding Ganga rejuvenation and restoration of prized Gangetic fishes.
