Current status of Trout farming in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The mountainous regions in the Himalayan states of India is endowed with copious amounts of highly oxygenated pristine freshwater highly suitable for culturing rainbow trout. Himachal Pradesh is a state with numerous streams and reservoirs and has a big potential for fish production. Estimated fisheries water resources of the state are around 3000 km out of that 600 km of coldwater streams are conducive for trout farming and classified as trout water
which can be judiciously trapped for trout culture. Trout is a cold water fish and well flourishes in water temperature ranges from 5oC to 15oC. Trout fish, both brown (Salmo trutta fario) and rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are found in the snow fed Beas, Sutluj and Ravi rivers in the highest reaches of the state where temperature of water hover around freezing point. The state has around 512 trout farms including seven that are run by the government mainly in Kullu, Chamba, Shimla, Kinnaur and Mandi district. Out of five zones, zone II and
III of Himachal Pradesh have vast potential for the culture of high prized fish “Rainbow troutâ€. Total production of trout in the state was 0.54 tonnes in the year 1996-97 and increased to 25 tonnes in 2005-06 while it reaches to 456.73 metric tonnes in the 2017-2018. Availability of technical know-how of trout farming, breeding and artificial diets has immensely helped in promoting aquaculture of trout in the state. Research and development efforts to expand and intensify rainbow trout production leads to overall increase in production of trout fish but still there is a huge gap between the actual and potential trout
production. In this paper trout production, current situation and its potential for future expansion in Himachal Pradesh were reviewed.