Shopian: After extinction of the local Schizothorax fishes due to mining of minerals in the Rambiara river and use of chemical substances to catch and kill fish, the fisheries department has now put about 60,000 trout fingerlings in the Rambiara, in an area that is far from human habitation.
However, the authorities have excluded the area where the local fish used to best thrive.
An official from the fisheries department told Kashmir Reader that they put 60,000 fingerlings into Rambiara rivulet between Pir ki Gali area and Hirpora bridge.
“We used to do it earlier but now it was done after a couple of years. This trout is a European fish breed that grows best in cold water. It swims opposite the water current due to which it will not come to the area which is polluted or where excavation of minerals is going on,” said Zahoor Ahmad Mir, assistant director, fisheries department, Shopian.
When asked why the department is not preserving the area where local fish was found and grown, he said that they have protected a huge area from Hirpora to Shopian for the local fish. However, for many years now, the local breed is not being found in the area which is preserved for it, Mir said.
Mir further said that local fish do not need any artificial breeding grounds as do the European trout. “We have only two staffers for the said area and when the government has auctioned the river minerals, it hardly is possible to save the area from excavation,” Mir said.
Officials said that trout fingerlings worth Rs 3 lakh were put into the river a week ago. They said that these were departmentally grown fingerlings so the local department has incurred no charges on transportation or payment to another fish farm.
Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a local from Shopian town, said that till a decade ago people used to often go for fishing in the Rambiara, but since the excavation of minerals started, and people started use of bleaching powder to catch and kill the fish, the local Kashmiri fishes disappeared from the river.
Another local said that the local fish were far better than trout, be it in taste or crunch.

Raashid Hassan