Photo: Shubasish Barua / driknews

The report “Endangered: 54 species of fresh water fish”, published in The Independent of October 30, 2009 draws our attention to the urgent need for developing policies and programmes to help protect our local varieties of fish.
The causes of gradual disappearance of fish varieties that include indiscriminate use of current net, widespread use of insecticides and abuse of the law have been discussed briefly. The remedial measures such as re-excavations of water bodies, proper implementation of fish act, crash programme for open water development, rehabilitation of fishermen and community based fisheries management programmes suggested in the report need to be considered seriously by the government and other agencies, so that an action programme can be started immediately to save our precious fresh water fish.