CIFRI Awards
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore organized awareness on “Hilsa and Dolphin conservation in river Ganga” at Farakka, Murshidabad Dist. of West Bengal on 20th September 2021 under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) programme. The main objective of the programme is i) to educate fishermen towards hilsa and dolphin conservation in river Ganga particularly at the Farakka ii) to create awareness towards river Ganga cleaning. Dr. B.K.Das, Director, ICAR-CIFRI welcomed all the delegates representing from Farakka Barrage Authority (FBA), Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). Dr. Das highlighted the recent activities on Hilsa improvement programme in river Ganga at Farakka carried out by ICAR-CIFRI and the new initiatives towards Dolphin conservation. Dr. Das elaborate the Honorable Prime Minister’s flagship programme on Project Dolphin in river Ganga and urged fishermen communities to stop killing the Dolphins and juvenile hilsa, which is the major cause of declining in the downstream of the Farakka barrage. While, to improve the hilsa fisheries in the upstream of Farakka barrage, Dr. Das requested FBA to renovate the functional operation of fish lock situated at gate no. 25 and 25A. Mr. R. Azhagesan, General Manager of FBA, advised the fishermen not to use small size mesh net for hilsa catching and emphasised on legal issues involved in destructive fishing such as poisoning. Mr. R. Azhagesan said poisoning is rampant in the downstream of the Farakka barrage, hence instructed to the In-Charge of CISF to take stringent actions against those involved in this process. Mr. Vineet Pande, Assistant Director of IWAI also expressed his concern regarding the decreasing of Hilsa population and pollution of the Ganga in the river. Mr. Vineet said the design of fish pass in the newly proposed navigational channel will support hilsa to migrate from feeder canal to the main channel of river Ganga. Dr. A.K.Sahoo, Senior Scientist and Co-ordinator of the programme urged fishermen to support the NMCG project towards Hilsa improvement programme and Dolphin conservation in river Ganga. Dr. Sahoo highlighted that ICAR-CIFRI is working hard towards Project Hilsa to improve the hilsa population in the middle stretch of river Ganga through scientific based recent techniques. During the entire programme 216 fishermen representing from upstream and downstream Farakka barrage, and Feeder canal, those are directly involved in fisheries activities in river Ganga were participated. The programme was carried out under the guidance of Dr. B.K.Das, Director and support of project staff from NMCG, Ministry of Jalshakti.
Updated on 23/09/2021
