Freshwater Aquaculture in Sundarbans India

Abstract

Aquaculture is an important economic activity and a flourishing sector in India with varied resources and vast potentials, growing at the pace of 4.5% annually, contributing to national income, employment generation and foreign exchange. Sundarbans, the world’s largest delta is a globally recognised ecologically sensitive area of West Bengal. This deltaic region, besides its role in estuarine ecological balance contributes to economic and livelihood development through resource utilisation and fish production. This region is rich in biodiversity and harbours both fresh and brackish water fish species. Therefore, apart from brackish water aquaculture, freshwater sector contributes parallel economy and livelihood security of the peoples living in close vicinity in the eco-region. But fish productivity in the range of 1000–1200 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ in this region is much lower at present in comparison to national average of 2840 kg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ mainly due to the non-scientific culture, poor quality fish seed, and overall lack of knowledge. The unutilised freshwater resources of this eco-region provide huge scope for development of freshwater aquaculture with proper management in spite of its remoteness, lack of communication with mainland, and extreme natural disasters like cyclone and flood the region encounters with. In this chapter, the present status and constraints of freshwater aquaculture of Sundarbans with recommended practices has been described focussing on quality fish seed production, scientific freshwater aquaculture practices, integrated fish farming, and the resultant gender upliftment through training and demonstration.