However, the place is known to fish wholesalers who regularly come here to buy trout in bulk, often one or two quintals. In winter maximum is sale to Delhi. Dealers prefer to buy small trout weighing about 250 gm. each, because restaurateurs find it profitable, as a portion of small fish is definitely cheaper than two pieces of large fish, that weigh more. In summer, the supply is more to Manali when it is flooded with foreign tourists. Recently a group of Israeli tourists bought around 20 kg trout daily.The locals, however, find it expensive.

The weight of trout is increased as per demand. A fingerling trout weighing 12-15 gm, is increased to table-size even 5 kg after giving it a nutritious feed. Trout’s diet is minerals, vitamins, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, fishmeal consisting of powdered dried sea fish, wheat, deoiled soyabean, yeast and linseed oil. Interestingly, big fish eat the smaller ones. Big fish are fed once daily while the smaller ones three to four times a day.

Last year when the sale target was an expected six tonnes it surprisingly touched a whopping 12-tonnes! Production will be doubled next year. Winter is the breeding season. A fish matures for breeding in three years. Inside, the walls of the Project bear these meaningful words:

Perennial snow-fed rivers and tributaries, make Himachal an angler’s delight. Surprisingly, trout is not its native. It was Mitchell a British who brought trout, a species of Salmonidae from England to Kashmir in 1899, eventually finding its way to Himachal in 1909. The concept of angler’s gamefish changed to commercial trout farming when dry trout feed appeared in Europe, which also revolutionised trout culture in North America, Denmark and Japan. The Indo-Norwegian Trout Farming Project was established in 1988. It aims at a model trout farm with modern hatchery techniques, pelleted trout feed and demonstration of large table-size trout farming technology. In its 14 fish tanks, Rainbow trout thrive while Barot’s Fisheries Department has the slow-growing rare brown variety.

Despite a series of floods devastating Kulu valley, the project has created interest in commercial trout farming suited to Himachal’s icy cold waters. Rainbow trout is ideal for farming as it accepts artificial feed easily.

Not only an all-night-vigil, but in fact a round-the-clock check is kept on fish tanks to ensure that its water supply is continuous. Silt or wood disrupts supply, especially in the monsoon. The fault has to be rectified immediately or else trout will choke. A watch is also kept on water’s temperature in fish tanks. Temperature should not exceed 17°C, as mortality starts after 18°C. Though trout can tolerate a temperature upto 20°C, it can exhaust not accepting the feed.

Beas and its tributaries like Tirthan, Parvati and Gadsa in Kulu abound in trout. Licenses for fishing can be had from District fisheries or Tourist Officer, Kulu or Manali. Carry your own flies and rods. Only artificial baits like spinner fly plug are allowed. However, no trout fishing is permitted from November 1 to January 31 each year.

But trout is not only for eating. As Sonam, an orchadist from Manali informed, ‘It is also dharam ke liye.’ He was buying live fingerling trout @ Rs 10 each, which he slipped in a bottle of water. ‘Back home I will release it in Beas. It is believed to grant a long life and is auspicious when a path is made.’ The Project has many such visitors, since fish is embedded in the valley’s culture.

Inside, one cannot miss reading these words conveying bond, a philosophy between man and fish: Matsya is activity, fecundity

And prosperity.

Matsya blesses his tribe with

The Trinity,

Sustainability,

Provided the tribe ensure his

Conscience of his capture

Susceptibility. The balance has to be maintained and man who inhabits land, shares the world with water’s creature, fish.