Inland Fisheries

6.1.1 Introduction

The floodplain wetlands are either permanent or temporary water bodies associated with rivers that constantly shift their beds especially in the potamon regimes. The frequency with which river changes its course depends on a number of variables like flow velocity, sediment transportation rate, slope, channel pattern, water and sediment yield, amount and duration of precipitation over the catchment area, texture and lithology of soil, tectonic status.

National Commission on Agriculture stated that the freshwater fishery resources, which have progressively gone into dereliction, comprise the floodplain wetlands. The floodplain wetlands usually represent the lentic component of floodplains viz., ox-bow lakes, sloughs, meander scroll depressions, residual channels and the back swamps and excludes the lotic component (the main river channels, the levee region and the flats). In addition, all the wetland tectonic depressions located in river basins are also included under floodplain wetlands. Thus, all the wetland formations located at the floodplains can be termed as flood plain wetlands. These are also called ox-bow lakes, locally known as Beels in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura, Maun, Chaur and Dhar in Bihar, Pat in Manipur, Beel Charha and Baor in Northern and Southeastern West Bengal and Jheels / Tal in Uttar Pradesh.

Wetlands are among the world’s most productive environments. They provide tremendous economic benefits to mankind through fishery production (over 2/3 of world’s inland fish harvest is linked to the health of wetland areas, the maintenance of water tables for agriculture, water storage and flood control, shoreline stabilization, timber production, waste disposal, water purification and recreational opportunities. They provide critical habitats for birds (especially water fowl), mammals, reptile, amphibian, fish and invertebrate species, some of which are threatened with extinction.

The wetlands associated with floodplains of rivers cover an estimated area of 0.2 million ha. They are a common feature of Indian landscape, especially along the Ganga and Brahmaputra river systems. There are 1,392 beels in Assam, of which 423 are registered with the Government and the remaining 960 are unregistered. Altogether derelict and semi-derelict wetlands are estimated to cover an area of 1,00,000 hectares. Referring to the flood plain wetlands of the country, Sugunan and Sinha observed “Floodplain wetlands form an important fishery resource in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, where thousands of poor fishermen are dependent on these water bodies for their livelihood”