Scientists breed golden mahseer in captivity

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 23

A team of fish scientists under the directorate of fisheries has successfully bred the golden mahseer (fish), an endangered species, in captivity at the Mahseer Seed Farm at Machhial located on the Machhial river in Jogindernagar for the first time in the country.

As a result, the mahseer fish breeding programme has given a new push to over 6,000 river fish farmers and the anglers who hunt for the golden mahseer, mainly in the Beas. The fisheries authorities hope to release about 20,000 mahseer fingerlings to revive the depleting number of fish in the Beas and Ravi in 2017, revealed scientists.

Despite the fact that the country had no mahseer breading technology, Himachal had become the first state in the country to breed the golden mahseer seed at its Machhial farm in Mandi district. “We have bred 20,000 fish brooders in the seed farm in August and now they are growing into fingerlings and will be ready to be released in rivers next year,” said Director (Fisheries) Dr Gurcharan Singh.

The fish farm got a research back-up from the Directorate of Cold Water Fisheries Research at Bhimtal in Uttarakhand and expertise from Dr NS Ogle, a mahseer fish scientist from Tata Fish Farm, Lonavala, Maharashtra. “We reared brooder fish, collected from rivers, in a pond, which became ready for breeding after four years,” said Dr Singh.

But this breeding came no cheap as fisheries claimed they paid Rs 1 crore as consultancy fee to the consultants. “We got Rs 1.5 crore for the fish farm from the Centre and a farm was set up in 2006. The farm project failed to take off until the state government gave Rs 10 lakh for constructing ponds,” said Dr Singh.

The mahseer fish seed farm would boost fish production in fresh water rivers in the state. Owing to the barriers in the Beas made for hydro projects, the mahseer’s natural breeding ground got depleted, said the scientists.