Around 450 trout fish worth Rs 5 lakh were found dead in a fish farm at Haripur near Manali yesterday. The farm belonged to Kushal Gupta.
According to Kushal Gupta, there was a loss of Rs 5 lakh to him. He said there was no insurance provision to compensate affected farmers in such situations.
Talking to The Tribune here today, he said he was depressed over the loss. “The fish farmers of the district have been urging the state government to include fish farming under the agriculture sector to cover it under the crop insurance scheme,” he said. “The sudden flow of dirty water into the fish farm led to polluting of water in it. When I visited the farm, I found hundreds of trout fish dead,” he said.
Fish farmers of the district had been struggling for a long time to include fish farming under the agriculture sector but the authorities concerned were not paying heed to their demand, said Shakti Singh, president of the Trout Fish Farmers’ Association.
He said due to natural calamity fish farmers of the district had suffered huge losses in the past. Many of them left the profession as there was no relief for them to continue with it.
Story : The Tribune