Fisheries Resources	Targets and Achievements

Haryana is basically an agricultural state and its land is the most important and scarce resources. About 75% of its population is engaged in agriculture and its related work. It is also well known that Haryana is the land of Milk. The State covers about 73.3% cultivated area and contributes about 5.6% of the total food grain production in the country.

The per capita availability of the land has been decreasing progressively over the years and is likely to decrease further due to the population pressure, urbanization and the industrial expansion.

Inspite of pre-dominent vegetarian population in the State, Fisheries has made significant progress in the last two decades. At the time of creation of Haryana in 1966, only 58 hectare of village ponds were under fish culture. The quality fish seed production stood at 1.50 lakhs/year and the fish production was 600 M.Tonnes/year. By the end of the year 2004-05; 8882.17 hectares area is under fish culture and total fish production is 42050 metric tonnes.

Rivers, canals and drains are the main sources for capture fisheries in Haryana. Although, there are 14 rivers and rivulets, yet the Yamuna and Ghaggar rivers are the only potential sources from fisheries point of view. The remaining rivulets pour water in these two rivers. There are 94 drains in the state which collect the over-flow water from fields and join rivulets and rivers. The state has 3 main canal systems i.e. Western Jamuna Canal System, Bhakra Canal System and Lift Canal System. It is reported that 55 species of fish are available in these natural water bodies. Fish production from the natural water bodies is declining fast. Fisheries Department, Haryana regulates the fisheries in natural water bodies under Indian Fisheries Act 1897 and Punjab Fisheries Act 1914 and Haryana Fisheries Rule, 1996 framed thereunder. The present fish production from these waters is 120 kg per kilometer per year.

The seed production and distribution in the State has fetched the level of 2470 lakh and more than 42050 M.Tonnes fish production has been estimated. The per unit area fish production is estimated at 4209 kg./year which ranks second in India.

Fisheries Resources:

The main sources of fisheries development in the State are given as under:

Targets and Achievements: