Himachal's Fisheries Department Nets SKOCH Gold Award for Golden Mahseer Conservation
The Fisheries Department of Himachal Pradesh received the SKOCH Gold Award-2025 for its innovative conservation efforts, focusing on the critically endangered Golden Mahseer. The department significantly improved breeding outcomes through strategic collaborations and initiatives, underlining its commitment to biodiversity conservation and addressing habitat degradation threats.
- Country:
- India
In a significant achievement, the Fisheries Department of Himachal Pradesh has been awarded the prestigious SKOCH Gold Award-2025 for its outstanding conservation efforts. The department's pioneering work in breeding the critically endangered Golden Mahseer was lauded at a ceremony on September 20, 2025, at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.
Representatives Vivek Chandel and Som Nath accepted the award for the department, with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu extolling the state's commitment to biodiversity conservation. The award underscores the department's innovative strategies to safeguard the Golden Mahseer, symbolic of Himachal Pradesh's aquatic biodiversity.
Faced with declining Mahseer populations due to habitat degradation, the department launched a captive breeding program bolstered by a partnership with ICAR-CIFRI. This initiative led to the production of 87,000 fingerlings in 2024-25 and a significant restocking of reservoirs with the species.
Google News