The ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata adopted fishers of Chamardaha wetland, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal under the Schedule Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) for improving the livelihood of fishers through fish production enhancement in the wetland.
The wetland of Chamardaha was undertaken by the Chamardaha Fishermens’ Cooperative Society Ltd. with all 150 members in the Cooperative Society belonging to the Schedule Caste. The wetland is a floodplain wetland having an area of 35 ha. The Institute provided the technical support and distributing HDPE pen, fish seed, fish feed, coracles, fishing boat and other fisheries implements to the Chamardaha fishers. The fishers were also provided the capacity building for five days on inland fisheries management for better management and sustainable enhancement of fish production from the wetland.
The Institute demonstrated the low cost quality In-Situ seed production through pen culture. A total of 12,500 IMC of 4 g size and 20,000 silver carp of 2.5 g size from the nursery pond were stocked in 0.2 ha ICAR-CIFRI pen HDPE installed in the wetland. After 90 days of stocking, 10,625 IMC having 40 to 50 gms. and 17,000 SC of 30 gms. were stocked in the wetland from the pen. The survivability of around 85% was observed in the pen with no transportation mortality as they were raised in the same environment and already acclimatized to the wetland environment. The technology was appreciated by the local fishers. Also a total of 3,000 kg of 10 gms. sizes were stocked in Chamardaha wetland for culture based fisheries from the nursery pond.
This year, the fishers have already harvested 5.0 tonnes of fish from the wetland during the months of January and February. However, the rest of the fish could not be harvested after February due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic situation. So, the fishers have decided to harvest during the coming winter season. An increase of additional 15 tonnes of fish production is anticipated from the wetland with the ICAR-CIFRI’s intervention.
The pen structures provided by the ICAR-CIFRI were over-flooded and destroyed due to the outbreak of the Amphan Cyclone on 20th May, 2020. The local fishers repaired the pens and installed them in the wetland. The fishers’ will stock around 1.0 lakh fish seeds in the reinstalled pen in the wetland. As a part of post Amphan support, the Institute distributed 3.5 tonnes of fish feed for seeds raised in pen to the Chamardaha Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Ltd. on 15th July, 2020 under the SCSP Programme that will help in improving the fisher’s livelihood through seed raising.
(Source: ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata)
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