J’khand to light up its fish rearing cages
The fish rearing cages in Jharkhand’s water bodies will be illuminated with wind turbine-cum-solar hybrid system (WTSHS) to attract tourists and grow the fish trade, fishery officials said on Monday.
Chandil dam, situated around 22-km north of Jamshedpur, has become first reservoir in the state where two units of WTSHS have been installed at Rs 5.71 lakh, , sponsored by National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad. The units are expected to illuminate about 1,000 cages installed in the dam.
“If the initiative delivers the desired results, the hi-tech power generation systems will be replicated in cages of other reservoirs,” said Ashish Kumar, deputy director at state fishery department.
Jharkhand is pioneer in cage culture technology. The technology is attracting both experts and tourists from different states of the country. Chandil dam was chosen first for the initiative because average 500 people visit here every day to enjoy boating and cage culture, the dam officials said.
The Chandil Dam Visthapit Matsyajibi Swabalambi Sahakari Samiti (CDVMSSS) has been entrusted with the task to operate the WTSHS and manage tourism in the dam. “The two units of WTSHS will help illuminate all 1000 fish cages in the dam. The work of connecting all cages with the system has been started,” CDVMSSS president Narayan Gope said.
He said illumination of cages would help better security management for both fish and tourists, who stay till late evening there. “Fish cages have emerged as centre of attraction for tourists. People come here to enjoy boating as well as fish farming,” he said.
Over six tonnes of fishes are transported to Patna from Chandil dam every week while four to five quintals of fishes are sold in local market every day, Gope said.
The cage culture method of fish farming had been introduced in 17 states of the country in 2010-11 but Jharkhand emerged as one of the successful state in scientific implementation of the project.
The technology supported by National Mission for Protein Supplement (NMPS) is being carried out on a large scale in the state. Now, this has taken a shape of industrial farming by involving common people with the trade, fishery department officials said.
State fishery department has so far set up more than 3,000 cages in various reservoirs of the state including Chandil, Patratu, Tilaiya, Maithon, Khandoli, Massanjore and Hatia dams. Each cage produces around three tonne of fishes annually.
The fishery department’s deputy director said that they have plan to install 1,000 more cages. “We are waiting for the central fund,” he said.
Fish farmers and fishery officials from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha and Telangana have often been visiting Jharkhand to learn the art of cage culture.
Jharkhand experts have recently helped Mizoram fishery department in cage installation in their local water bodies.
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