Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 25 (EMN): Manipur’s fishery department is taking up necessary steps to introduce locally-bred freshwater catfish popularly known as Sareng (Wallago Attu) at the fish fair-cum-fish mela in the upcoming Ningol Chakkouba, one of the biggest festivals of the state, officials said.
Ningol Chakkouba (Ningol meaning married women and Chakkouba invitation for feast) falls on the second lunar day of Manipuri calendar ‘Hiyanggei.’ During the festival married women are invited to their parents’ home for the grand feast in which fish is the main menu.
But due to unavailability of Sareng in the market as well as in the annual fishery department-sponsored fish mela, people of the state have been buying Sareng from outside the state spending extra money, since the fish is a part of culture and tradition of the state.
For years the state has been buying Sareng from outside the state.
After the import of Sareng seeds from the rivers and lakes of Bangladesh last year, few progressive farmers in the border state started to take up the initiative to revive Sareng in their ponds.
The idea behind the initiative is to revive Sareng, which have vanished from the local water bodies due to various reasons, and to save huge money spent on importing the fish variety from other states.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh who has a keen interest in reviving the Sareng in locals ponds to meet the public demands, had instructed the state fishery department officials to initiate the project to reduce the import of the fish from outside the state.
Earlier, on August 19, 2021, the chief minster released 600 Sareng fishlings at the ponds located inside the premises of district fishery office in Imphal West district.
Since then the department never looked back and took up the initiative to revive Sareng by providing a 50 per cent subsidy to select progressive farmers under the guidance and support from the department of fisheries.
And with the success in rearing of the fish species in the local ponds and subsequent progress in its production, the department officials promised to introduce fresh and live Sareng for public consumption in the upcoming Ningol Chakkouba festival.
On hearing the news and seeing the produce from the local farms, Singh congratulated the fish farmers and department officials for the achievement.
“So now with the success of Sareng rearing in local ponds, we’ll take up the necessary steps to establish a breeding initiative for Sareng. We’ll also consult the department officials to provide the necessary assistance to the progressive farmers to achieve our targets,” Singh said.
Manipur has been reportedly spending around INR 400 crore annually on import of fish from outside the state.
