CIFRI Awards
ICAR- Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, carried out the River Ranching Program-2024 at Barrackpore as part of the ‘Namami Gange’ mission, with the goal of conserving and reviving the Ganga river. The event had a holy outset with Ganga arti. Shri G. Asok Kumar, IAS, Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Jalsakti, Govt. of India; Dr. Sandeep Behera, a Senior Biodiversity Consultant at NMCG; Sri Saurav Barik, SDO, Barrackpore; Dr. Basanta Kumar Das, Principal Investigator of the project and Director of ICAR-CIFRI, a group of fishermen, and other project team members and officials of ICAR-CIFRI formally honoured the occasion with their presence. It commenced at Du Paisar Ghat, Barrackpore, West Bengal. 1,00,000 native Sarana (Sar Puti) were released into the Ganga River with the goal of restoring the riverine stock.
30 fishermen took part in the ranching programme. Mr. G. Asok Kumar, the Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), gave an overview of the targets of Namami Gange initiative and emphasised its recent accomplishments. He also mentioned the difficulties that can come up in the future. Principal Investigator Dr. Basanta Kumar Das, Director of ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), reviewed the accomplishments of the previous phase of the Namami Gange fish conservation programme and gave an update on the most recent phase. It was underlined how crucial it is to keep the Ganga river system healthy in order to protect the variety of native fish species.
Dr. Das gave an account of the extensive work and noteworthy accomplishments from NMCG Phases I and II. These included surveying fish diversity, assessing the stocks of economically significant species such as Hilsa, producing seeds from wild germplasm of particular fish kinds, and putting ranching programmes into action in river segments that have run dry. He also provided some insights of Phase III's current state of development. The successful execution of this landmark event may strengthen river Ganga's sustainable future.
