Training on ormental fish farming at Tinsukia

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
TINSUKIA, March 17: The ICAR–Central Institute of freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar in collaboration with Jeeva Suraksha, a reputed NGO of Sivasagar, Assam  working in the field of conservation, education and employment generation in North East India organised  a two–day training programme on ormental fish farming at Department of Life Sciences, Dibrugarh university on March16 and17.
The objective of the programme is to make people aware about the lucrative business of ormental fish farming, its trade and how the rural folk of Assam get to know about the technology of ormental fish breeding and culture. Since Assam is the goldmine of indigenous ormental fishes, many indigenous varieties are being exported outside the country through the exporters from all over the country, but the local people and even the suppliers do not know the price in tiol and intertiol market. Consequently, some of indigenous ormental fishes are under the threat of extinction due to overexploitation and hence, awareness and motivation of the stakeholders is very much essential for conservation of these species.
During the Iugural function Krishshree Das Kalita, District Fisheries Development Officer, Dibrugarh explained about different government schemes and ask support for implementation of Assam Fisheries Act in the district. Prof S.P Biswas in his iugural talk motivated the entrepreneurs about the conservation of indigenous ormental fish species of Assam. Dr Ranjita Bania, Fisheries biologist and Coorditor of the programme addressed the gathering and said that Assam is far behind in ormental fish farming compared to the other states and it is almost non–existent in upper Assam. 
She thanked   Dr J Sundaray, Director, CIFA– ICAR for the training programme at Dibrugarh and requested him for future such collaboration in the field of aquaculture in NE India.  
Dr Saroj Kumar Swain, Principal Scientist ICAR–CIFA and Course Director delivered lectures on breeding and culture of indigenous and exotic ormental fishes and also showed CIFA prepared documentary films on ormental fish farming across the country. Likhanta Borah, an entrepreneur from Moran also shared his experience. On the 2nd day, Kripan Sarkar, a renowned entrepreneur of Siliguri shared his experience on live food culture and on farm production of aquarium fish. Dr. S.P Biswas, Professor, Dept of Life Sciences shared his experience on acclimatization and prophylactic measures needed in aquarium fish breeding. The training programme was attended by 38 participants from Jorhat, Golaghat, Dhemaji, gaon, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia district along with some research scholars and faculty members of Dibrugarh University. Dr Amal Bawri, Secretary, Jeeva–Suraksha and Bhadra Kumar Dutta, executive member of the NGO conducted the programme.