Ornamental fish farming boom in Rajasthan

TONK - The ornamental fish industry has started to catch on in a big way in Rajasthan, allowing fish-farmers to earn good profits in the state’s Tonk district.

The State’s Fisheries Department recently opened a full-fledged fish aquarium to benefit fish farmers.

The motive behind this exercise was to encourage fish farmers to farm ornamental fish as they require less water as compared to other species.

In the past few years in Rajasthan, the fish farming industry has boomed and around 20,000 people are directly or indirectly getting employment in this trade.

“Right now, the fishes go to Delhi…the revenue Rajasthan is getting now is around 20 crore rupees and as far as a private trader is concerned, nobody discloses their income. It is limited to them…but our production, which was 12,000-13,000 metric tonnes, has reached 27,000 metric tonnes. Now, we are trying to increase the production to 80,000 metric tonnes in the next five to 10 years,” said R K Meena, Director, Fisheries Department.

Although the State Fisheries Department gets around Rs 200 million, estimates put the industry in Rajasthan - which includes numerous private players - at over Rs one billion.

The main fish farming pockets in the State are Jaipur as well as the cities of Dungarpur, Banswara, Jhalawar and Bhilwara. (ANI)