CIFRI Awards
ICAR-CIFRI organized World Water Day on 22nd March, 2021 by organising a virtual seminar on ‘Valuing water for sustainable fisheries’ based on the theme of this year i.e. ‘Valuing water’. Shri U.P. Singh, IAS, former Secretary in the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti and currently Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India was the Chief Guest. Prof. Govind Chakrapani, Vice-Chancellor, Berhampur University, Odisha was the Guest of honour. The programme was started with the welcome address delivered by Dr. B.K. Das, Director of the institute. Shri Singh, in his address as the chief guest highlighted various issues of water management and different Govt schemes for water conservation. He specifically mentioned five pronged strategy of water management (5 Rs) like Reduce, Reuse, Recycling, Recharge and most importantly Respect. The Guest of Honour Prof. Chakrapani had set the tone of the seminar by explaining the importance of water for sustaining life, fisheries and biodiversity stressing upon the water stress and crisis in water management. Dr. B.K Das delivered a talk on valuing water for sustainable wetland fisheries in which he mentioned about importance of wetlands in enhancing production and conservation of different species. Prof. Mst. Kaniz Fatema, Head, Fishery Resource Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University talked on water management for sustainable fisheries from Bangladesh perspective. She mentioned different water resources for inland fisheries in Bangladesh, issues in water management and systems adopted for sustainable use of water. She also suggested better coordination among the stakeholders. Prof. Tuhin Ghosh, Director, School of Oceanographic studies, Jadavpur University delivered a talk on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) and water valuation for coastal fisheries. A presentation on ‘River basin management for sustainable fisheries: Valuing for open waters’ highlighting important points like water obstruction, abstraction, pollution, flow pulses, environmental flow requirement of important fisheries was given by Prof. Sarad Jain, Visiting Professor, IIT, Roorkey in association with Dr. A.K. Sahoo, Senior Scientist, ICAR-CIFRI and one of the coordinators of the programme. Prof. Joy Gopal Jena Head, Civil Engineering, Gandhi Institute of Technological Advancement, Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Bhubaneswar spoke on ‘Balancing hydrology and ecology for sustaining aquatic lives during hydropower construction’. He stressed upon the importance both ecology and hydrology for sustainable fisheries in hydropower generation sites. The online seminar was attended by scientific and technical staff of the institute, students, research scholars and farmers. Dr. S.K. Nag, HoD (I/C), Fishery Resource Assessment and Informatics Division and coordinator of the programme proposed the vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, speakers and attendees. The programme ended with the National Anthem.
