The recovery of trout fish in mountainous region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa needs years as majority of the stock along with hundreds of farms is washed away by disastrous floods.
The recent devastating floods in Kohistan, Swat, Chitral, Manshera, Shangla, Dir lower and Upper has wreaked havoc on trout fishing farming industry by completely destroying 375 number of farms and nine public sector hatcheries. Apart from destroying hundreds of fish farms, the ferocious flood also swept away fish stock weighing hundreds of tonnes.
“Majority of the trout fish farms are destroyed in Swat around 220 in numbers while 50 in Manshera, 29 including one hatchery in Dir Upper and remaining in other district,” informed Zubair Ali, Director Fisheries Planning and Development KP.
Talking to APP, Zubair said damage to trout fish stock is enormous and its recovery will take years.
Almost majority of the stock in farms and river water is swept away down country and development of new fish stock needs a lot of resources for which the Fisheries Department has submitted a three years recovery plan. In the first year of recovery plan, we have submitted projects costing upto Rs. 800 million and for full recovery the department needs a hefty amount of Rs. 2.5 billion, Zubair told. Public sector hatcheries including the largest at Madyan in Swat is completely destroyed and department don’t have fish fries to distribute in remaining farms for recovering of fish stock losses.
The Fisheries department, he continued, is contemplating a plan to import trout fish eggs for hatching and distribution of fries in different farms. In response to a question about collection of fries of trout fish from farms in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, Zubair said these areas fish farm are not so large that will fulfill need of KP.—APP
