When a Scotsman named J.S. Macdonall shipped 1,800 trout eggs into Kashmir in 1900, he introduced the fishing culture to the region, turning Srinagar’s clean and fast-moving streams into a sporting hub for local and foreign anglers. Over a century later, cold-water trout is the most popular fish on the Valley platter, and a growing number of farmers are eyeing opprtunities to export trout to meet European demand, bringing the saga full circle.
The past decade has witnessed a sea change in trout farming since the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government decided to allow the entry of private players. In 2019-20, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, J&K had 534 farmers producing 650 tonnes of trout; by 2022-23, the industry had grown to 1,144 farmers whose production had shot up more than 200% to a whopping 1,990 tonnes of trout, according to the Union Territory’s Fisheries department.
