ICAR - CIFRI

Overview

Publications

Social icons

CIFRI Awards

Recruitment

Intranet

CIFRI Corners'

Ranching of Fertilized Hilsa Eggs in Ganga: First of its Kind in India towards fish species restoration in river ecosystem

1^st March, 2022
ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore for the first time ranched 1,80,000 fertilized hilsa eggs in the river Ganga at the upstream of Farakka barrage, as an attempt towards hilsa fisheries restoration in the river Ganga. Hilsa is an iconic species in Ganga-Brahmaputra-Megna (GBM) basin and mostly preferred by the people of West Bengal and Bangadesh.

Due to continuous anthropogenic pressures, the species has lost in the river Ganga particularly in the middle stretch from Farakka, West Bengal to Prayagraj, U.P. Realizing the importance of immediate restoration of the species in the river Ganga, ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore in association with the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ministry of Jal Shakti has initiated a holistic approach including the ranching of the adult hilsa in the middle stretch of the river. Since, 2020, more than 45000 adult hilsa has been already ranched in the selected stretch and the results are interesting. The ranching of fertilized eggs is a novel approach towards germplasm conservation and species restoration. The ranching of fertilized hilsa eggs is not only of the first kind in India towards species restoration but also an attempt towards native germplasm conservation in the open water rivers, supporting the activities towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-14,15) i.e life under water and life on land.

While restoring the lost habitat is important, it takes time and involvement of many stakeholders, artificial breeding and ranching at different life stages of the species could facilitate the lost species restoration in the open water like in the rivers. Before the ranching, proper site in the river Ganga above Farakka was selected to avoid the high water current, greater depth and less human intervenes. During the process, adult hilsa male and females were bred on board through dry stripping method. The fertilization rate was 85-90%. The fertilized eggs were packed with oxygen support and transported to the ranching site. Transportation was done during early morning or evening to avoid the raise in water temperature. The entire work was being carried out under the guidance of Dr. B.K.Das, Director and NMCG project team members.