Nearly 3,000 seedlings of Rohu fish were released into the Damodar river today by a social welfare organisation aiming to scale up the river’s ecosystem.
Indiscriminate discharge of industrial and domestic waste has degraded the Damodar’s ecosystem significantly affecting its fish population over the years. The local fishermen complained about sudden fall in fish population in the Damodar’s barrage area.
The Rotary Club Central, Durgapur felt the need to address the problem and took up the mission to add fish population into the river today. Mantar Singh, president of the organisation, said: “It’s a part of our mission – ‘giving back to nature’, which is considered as the conservation practice to support populations and ecosystems.” The Durgapur Barrage area of the Damodar, according to the state fisheries department, has 36 different species of fish such as Rohu, Katla, Tilapia and small prawns currently, which was 47 in 2012. Nearly 3,000 fishermen community members sustain on daily fishing in the river.