Stop eliminating the trout fish of Garum Chashma

Reproduced from Chitral Today (chitraltoday.com)

Garum Chashma valley in Chitral is famous for its scenic beauty and crystal clear blue water stream. The Garum Chashma River is the abode of world class Rainbow Trout(Oncorhynchus mykiss), which is in high demand for being multi vitamin and is important specie of fresh water ecosystem, introduced in the era of our British masters.

Rainbow trout are highly prized as game fish because they fight hard to free themselves, leaping high out of the water. Rainbow trout are often quite beautiful, with spotted backs and a red splash across their sides. Colours are especially pronounced specially in the spawning season.

Unfortunately the story of this trout is very much tragic. Indiscriminate killing of the fish starts right by the end of spring to the autumn. The fish undergoes breeding period from June to the end of August and it is not spared even its breeding hours; the result is a great decline in population of the fish to the point of extinction.

Last year the district fisheries department appealed to the hunters to stop fish catch, which proves nothing more than an eye wash. Special measures are needed to control the population decline of the trout. The watchdog appointed by fishery department is highly ineffective to say the least, because the offenders are devising new techniques for fish haunt every day.

Generally the operation against the fish starts after 9pm in which large fishing nets are used to filter fish from the river, obviously without any legal permit. Use of dynamite to incapacitate the fish for good catch is known to everybody in the area. The toxic ingredients of dynamite such as nitroglycerine are disruptive for food chain in fresh water ecosystem causing diseases in the long run in aquatic organisms beside disastrous immediate effects. The act constitutes crime against animal specie and the offenders go unnoticed and unpunished.

Due to critical decline in the trout fish population the local tourism and recreation has come to a stand still. Serious efforts are needed to arrest the complete degeneration of this highly valued fish in the area not only from the responsible department but also from the local communities. The best solution to the problem lies in taking the local communities on board; as long as the community is not involved in the effort to save this fish from degeneration, no effort can be fruitful to protect the specie. To this end the district fishery department may amply make joint partnership for fish conservation with village conservative societies which are very effectively working in the area.

Law enforcement agencies would also go a long way to stop the rot provided they extend scrupulous legal hand.





Fidaul Karim

Shoghore (April 13, 2011).