Panda, Special Issue, Conserving Mahseer in India

The alarming status of several species of mahseer in the country prompted WWF-India to conduct a workshop on mahseer conservation on 19 July 2012 in Delhi in which 22 persons of varied backgrounds but genuinely interested in mahseer conservation participated. Karma Tenzin, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, represented Bhutan. At the end of the workshop it was decided to bring out a special issue of Panda, WWFIndia Newsletter, compiling the articles submitted by the participants. In total seven articles were received and the essence of the articles is given here for people to come up with conservationfriendly suggestions.

Usha Moza of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research firmly believes that mahseer conservation can be strengthened if it is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Environment and Forests. Shashank Ogale, who has enormous experience with fish hatcheries in Tata Power Company, Lonavla in Maharashtra, was a former consultant with the World Bank, recommends stocking of perennial waters with fingerlings and protecting the adult fish by enforcing the Fisheries Act. Prakash Nautiyal, who has spent a lifetime studying golden mahseer in the Gangetic river system, suggests that the leftover stocks in the water bodies should be allowed to multiply and depleted water bodies should be stocked with fingerlings produced in the hatcheries.

Read the e-version here