The season’s first fish farming at the Vellore’s Fort moat began with the release of 30,000 fishes, mainly Catla and Roya varieties, into the waterbody.
Along with local fishermen, officials of the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation (TNFDC), which maintains the fish farm in the moat, started the initiative. Every year, on an average, around 40,000 fishes have to be released into the moat to maintain its total growth. In other words, the moat should retain fish growth of 3-5 lakh round the year. Between May and August is the preferred season for the release due to the relatively colder weather.
Sometimes, the liberation exercise gets delayed due to the lack of adequate quantity of fishes from the farms. In Vellore district, the fort’s moat is the only place where fish farming is done by the department. Fishes are brought from large fish farms in the Mordhana dam in Gudiyatham, near Vellore, every season. “Local fishermen were roped in for fishing from the moat on a shared basis depending on the fish varieties. We have been fishing from the moat for decades,” said K. Siva, president, Vellore and Tiruvannamalai Districts Fishermen Society Federation.
At the moat, Catla, Roya and Mithila are the preferred freshwater fish varieties that are cultivated with acumen, involving local fishermen and officials of the Fisheries Department. These fish varieties were chosen for at least two reasons – speedy growth and good taste. They weigh over one kg in three months in the Mordhana dam area.
Fishing in the moat is done by a small group of fishermen closely monitored by the officials, mostly in the mornings due to cooler weather. No catch target is fixed. However, local fishermen and the Department share a 50:50 of the net catch for local fish varieties, like jalebi, whereas for Catla, Roya and Mithila, the Department gets two-third of the total catch and the rest go to the fishermen.
This is mainly due to the high sales target set for the Department. On an average, 7 tonnes of fish from the moat should be caught and sold every year. The moat has been helping surpass this target for the past few years. The fish are sold as stock (₹120 per kg) and unstock (₹40 per kg) based on the varieties. Alongside this, 70,000 fishes were left in the Thulasi Mamandur lake, near Arni, in Tiruvannamalai, which is maintained by the Public Works Department.
Of the total catch, one-third goes for local consumption with the rest going to government-run stalls and buyers in the State.
