A beel thicky infested with water hyacinth

Fore word
The State of hsam is endowed with copious aquatlc wealth tn the form of beek.
swamos. ~onds and nv-. which bear rich DOtWIhal for Inland fish wodcllon Nevertheless. the
Stale'sllll has a defctt of fish productm io the tune of 1 5 lakh t per year The floodplatn
wetlands (beeis]. extending over one lakh ha, mstltute me most Important flshery resource of
the State The tnvestlaatlons camed out bv the Central Inland Caolure Ftsherles Research
lnstltute (CIFRI) have &ved mat the beefs &n produce much more fish than what they do at
present Lack of technical adv~ce on utilization of this resource for fishery development has been
one of the reasons for low vHtlds ClFRl has been investiaatlna the ecoloa~cal characlertst~cs
of me beets of Assam tor me last two -es wtm a vlew I; develop guldelties for lhew Itsher).
management Based on these extensive lnvestlgatlons some new Isghls nave beer) thrown on
he ecology and fishery polenttal of the beels of Assam
The lnstrtule has also been able to develop some broad gutdellnes for the management
of culture-based and caDture fisherms of me beeh, whlch have been Dresented In th~s bulletln
~b~t~re-baseo fssnery isc~~nates subslantsal tncrease In fish y.ela and productton wtltl rn nmtr
monetary gnputs and environmental damage Development of heel fnsher es on the bass of
culture-based fisheries IS also s~gnlfcant from a soclo-econom~c potnt of vtew Most of them are
common properly resources managed under mperallve fold Thus beneftts accrued from the
$"creased productlvlty 8s equttably d~strlbuted among the f~shers
Thts bellettn IS the first ever anempt to provlde sc~entiflc advlce on ftshery management
of flwdplatn wetlands of Assam, based on sc~enttfic prlnctples Even though tt 15 not posslble
to develoD tectmoloQv -. packages for f~shery manaaemenl of beels due to many reasons Ihe
formalwe gundelmes presenlW In thls commun#catlon are adequate lo aclr,eve sdbstantfdt
Increase In ytead an0 product~on from beets Tne team of CtFR, sclentlsts under tne leadel Sntp
of Dr V V Sugunan has done a commendable job In collecttng data from the beels of Assam
under vanous wnstralnts and analyzlog them to develop some very useful guldeltnes I trust lhls
builet~n apart from bang a very useful reference materlal for the beet managers, wlll go a long
way In lncreastng the lnland fish productton In the Slate of Assam
M. Sinha
Director