CIFRI Awards
A meeting was held on NASF Project entitled “Captive breeding of hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha: Phase II” on August 03,2021both in physical and virtual mode where the Director, project PI along withthe Co-PIs including administrative personnel of ICAR-CIFRI andsome CCPIs of the partner Institutes attended the meeting physically at CIFRI, while the Directors of different ICAR Institutes, rest of the CCPIs and Co-PIs of the partner Institutes and participants were present in virtual mode. The meeting was attended by Dr. B. K. Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore(Lead Institute); Dr. Gopal Krishna, Director and Vice Chancellor, ICAR-CIFE, Mumbai; Dr. S.K. Swain, Director, ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar; Dr. K.P. Jithendran, Director, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai; Dr. S. Samanta, Consortium PI, ICAR-CIFRI; Dr. D. N. Chattopadhyay, CCPI, ICAR-CIFA;Dr. D. De, CCPI, ICAR-CIBA; Dr. S. Dasgupta, CCPI, ICAR-CIFE; Dr. B. K. Behera, Co-PI, ICAR-CIFRI; Dr. R. K. Manna, Co-PI, ICAR-CIFRIand Dr. A. K. Sahoo, Co-PI, ICAR-CIFRI. Inaugurating the programme, Dr. B. K. Das, Director, requested all the Directors of the partner Institutes to take initiatives to overcome all sorts of constraints faced in executing the project activities, running under COVID pandemic condition aggravated withthe damages caused by the “Yaas” and urging them to extend all possible supports to the project investigators. Dr. Gopal Krishna in his positive notesdeclared that the technical programme will be under sole responsibility of the project PI and Co-PIs under his strong administrative support. Recalling his last visit to RRC, Rahara, W.B., Dr. S.K. Swain showed solidarity with complete support towards the project activities emphasizing on monitoring the environmental factors, hormonal manipulation techniques in add it ionto salinity as a major factor for reproduction of hilsa. Dr. K.P. Jithendran stressed on the regional importance of hilsa as well as its conservational benefits; while gonadal maturation of the species is yet to be tackled in a more pragmatic manner.Dr. Das alertedto all the Directors including project members to maintain reservation while announcing any project related information to the media. Dr. S. Samanta, Dr. D. N. Chattopadhyay, Dr. D. De and Dr. S. Dasgupta sequentially presented the objective-wise progress made during last 6 months and discussed the proposed research plan of actionsto be performed in next 3 months followed by budget utilization of the respective ICAR partner Institutes. A devastated loss of established broodstock of 3 years in well maintained ponds of ICAR-CIBA, Kakdwip W.B. by the cyclone Yaas was highlighted; ponds maintained at Kolaghat also got heavily damaged. All such irreparable loss might delay in achieving the project targets. Dr. Das committed all plausible supports with utmost cooperation to the project members and also requested all the Directors for providing need-based financial support from their respective Institute fund for larger interest of this very valued National Project.It was suggested to stock hilsa at multiple ponds to avoid possible loss due to any untoward natural calamity. Development of joint common protocols for breeding of hilsa coupled with engaging more ponds for brood stock management-Dr. Das reiterated and urged the administrative officials to prioritize the NASF-HILSA project. Looking towards the conservation needs, awareness programme on hilsa at Kolaghat and other such areas should be conducted inviting local hilsa fishers – he emphasized. The meeting was ended with positive notes.
Updated on 6/08/2021
