Fish farmers count losses as waterbodies dry up

Ranchi: Nagendra Mahato, a fish farmer in Ranchi district's Rahe block, is worried as ponds are drying up owing to the long dry spell.
Mahato rears fish in a pond spread over an acre and his annual turnover is around Rs 1 lakh. But this time, Mahato is worried that he might not even get Rs 30,000.
"I start breeding fish in June and the stock lasts till July.But this year, the pond started drying up very early and I have no option but to sell the fish," he said.
Like Mahato, many fish farmers are forced to sell their fish.
The director of Jharkhand State Co-operative Fisheries Federation Ltd (Jhascofish), Ashish Kumar, said, "Farmers usually sell rohu when it crosses one kg. But now they are selling the fish as soon as they are reaching 150-200 gm. Farmers from Sonahatu, Tamar and other nearby areas are coming to Ranchi markets."
The fish farmers' loss has turned into consumers' gain. Now, people are getting fresh fish from Jharkhand and they do not have to buy the six-day-old fish imported from Andhra Pradesh.
Many ponds and reservoirs are drying up. The level of Button talaab, which is situated on the premises of the fisheries department and one of the main centres of fish rearing in the city, has also depleted by six feet and now only three feet water is remaining in the pond.
Meanwhile, the nursery, rearing and stocking farms constructed by the department near the Button talaab have dried up completely. "There are 17 nursery farms around 3-4 feet deep, six rearing farm which are 6ft deep and three stocking farms which are 8ft deep. Only two of these have water remaining in them while we are using the water from Button Talaab to fill up the remaining ponds," Kumar said.
While there is no immediate way to deal with the problem, the fisheries department has a few plans to help the farmers make up for the loss in future. "We are planning to use the water pockets formed after drying up of reservoirs to breed spawns. We will put spawns in these water pockets and by the time they start growing, rainfall would begin filling up the reservoirs and providing enough water for these spawns to grow into big fishes," Kumar said.
This apart, the department is collecting the data of loss incurred by the farmers in every district. Kumar said, "We will request the disaster management department to provide funds to the farmers who have faced loss."