Uttaranchal govt promotes trout fishing

Sensing a big export market for the trout, the Uttaranchal government has signed an agreement with Nabard to exploit the fishery potential in new areas in the state.

Napcons, a consultancy service of Nabard, will prepare a detailed project report on the trout and other fish after conducting a survey in the state, Joint Director S R Chanyal said. The report is expected to be submitted in one to two months' time.

The project report would help the government in finding business opportunities for local people as well as to explore export avenues, as the demand for the trout is growing world-wide.

As the first step, the government is producing fingerlings of the trout at its three fish farms in the Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts. Two lakh fingerlings were currently being produced in these three farms, Chanyal said.

With the market rate of trouts hovering around Rs 500 per kg, the government has also asked the revenue and forest departments to stop the illegal fishing of the trout, which is generally found at a height above 4,000 feet and at temperatures 5-10 degree Celcius.

From these farms, the fingerlings will be transferred to various rivers like the Tons, the Assiganga, the Balquila and the Pinder, which are generally snow-fed. Three varieties of trouts are found in Uttaranchal--Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout and Snow Trout. Rainbow trout has high demand in Britain, France and other European nations.

"We are encouraging all the three varieties in the state," Chanyal said. The government is also setting up a packaging plant in Pantnagar to package the fish.