Editorial: Fish breeding in India

INDIA - There was a time when several hundred species of sweet water fish were found in this country.

Some of these species have become extinct over time and some more are threatened. High population growth, indiscriminate catching of fishes including fish fries, environmental degradation from use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, other forms of human intervention in the wetlands and in the rivers where fishes naturally breed and feed, are among the reasons for the disappearance of species of fish.

Fishes from Burma, India and even Thailand are now spotted in the local markets although Bangladesh was traditionally famed as the land of fishes in this region.

This is indeed, highly undesirable because there is much scope for planned fish breeding and culture in this country. There are many thousands of derelict ponds and big water bodies which are found all over the country. In their present state, these are of little use to anybody either as water reservoirs or for sheltering fishes.

Source: The New Nation