CIFRI Awards
In commemoration of India's 75 years of Independence, as Bharat Ka Amrut Mahostav, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore organised a virtual webinar on “Sensitization on Hilsa Fisheries Conservation and Livelihood Improvement in River Ganga” on 11th August 2021. The main objectives of the webinar were 1) To conserve Hilsa fisheries in river Ganga through policy level intervention 2) To create awareness among the fishermen towards hilsa conservation. Dr. B.K.Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI welcomed all the invited speakers from India, Bangladesh and Myanmar and participants representing fisheries communities, students, and Government officials from different states. Dr. Das presented the Hilsa research and awareness programmes carried out at ICAR-CIFRI, since last decade. Dr. B.K.Das highlighted the impact of Farakka Barrage on the hilsa migration, mess size regulation, overfishing and juvenile killing are the major challenges for Hilsa fisheries in river Ganga. Furthermore, Dr. Das also highlighted the ICAR-CIFRI’s recent initiatives including ranching of adult hilsa in the river Ganga, captive breeding of hilsa and tagging of hilsa to record it’s migration (upstream/downstream) in river Ganga. Dr. Y.S.Yadava, Director, Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP), Chennai, India presented on “BOBP-IGO’s efforts towards Hilsa fisheries conservation and sustainability: Indian perspective” and highlighted the Indian National Plan of Action (NPOA) for Hilsa. Dr. Yadava expressed that no remarkable progress on NPOA in India has been made so far. Prof. Abdul Wahab, Team leader of Ecofish, WorldFish, Bangladesh presented on the “Hilsa Conservation and Livelihoods Improvement of Fishers: Case studies from Bangladesh”. Prof. Wahab elaborated the significant results obtained through the community participation, intensive public awareness, provision of Govt. schemes as alternative during ban period of hilsa catch and strict surveillance and enforcement. Through this process, Prof. Wahab said Bangladesh has achieved a significant higher hilsa production by 9.2% over the period of 5 yrs. Dr. Mike Akester, Region Director, South East Asia and the Pacific, Worldfish, Myanmar presented on “Fiscal reforms to finance incentive-based hilsa fishery management in Myanmar”. Dr. Mike highlighted the value chains in hilsa fisheries and explained on How does a hilsa fish go from a tributary in the Ayerawaddy to a dinner table in Beijing? The programme was ended with formal vote of thanks proposed by Dr. A.K.Das, Principal Scientist, followed by the National Anthem. A total of 100 participants were active on virtual platform during the programme. The programme was coordinated by Drs. A.K.Sahoo, A.K.Das, D.K.Meena, Santhana Kumar and M. Ramtake.
Updated on 12/08/2021
