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Cooch Behar is the farthest district of West Bengal from its capital Kolkata
situated at a
distance of about 700 Km. and is a north-eastern district of Jalpaiguri
Division. Geographically it is the part of the Himalayan Tarai region of West Bengal. It is bordered by Jalpaiguri district in the north,
Assam in the east and Bangladesh in the east, south & west. The district is 3387 sq. km. in area &
triangular in shape. River Torsa flows beside the main town (Headquarter) bearing the same name. The district consists of
5 (five) sub-divisions, 12 blocks
& 128 gram Panchayet and total nos. of mouzas of the district
is 1,168. As per 2001 census the total population is 24,79,155, out
of which 12,72,094 are male and 12,07,061 are female. The population of fishermen’s
community of the district is 1,91,625 and most of the fishermen
population belong to Schedule Caste and live in most poor condition below poverty line as they have lost their last scope to maintain their
livelihood by capturing fish as well as they are not in a position to
cultivate their own water bodies though six perineal rivers, namely
- Tista, Jaldhaka, Torsa, Raidak, Gadadhar and Kaljani flow through this
district.
Different ongoing schemes of
Fisheries Department for Coochbehar district are like Training to the Fish Farmers,
Development of Tank Fisheries, Development of Aquaculture through FFDA,
Promotion of Integrated Fish Farming, Reclamation of big water body, i.e. Chhara/Beel,
Infrastructure Development, Development of Fishermen Co-operative Society,
Old Age Pension, Wet Land Day Observation, Demonstration Center, Magur
breeding with Hatchery along with Indigenous Species, Development of
Aquaculture through Short Term Credit, Fish Farmers Day Observation and
Construction of Landing Centre.
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Total water areas of the district are about 6,120 ha out of which about
2,932 ha are under Beel Fisheries, 2,007 ha are under Tank
Culture and the
rest of water areas are flowing rivers. It has one CFCS, 63 nos. of
Primary Fisherman’s Co-operative Society Ltd. (PFCS), 12 no. Fish
Production Groups (FPG) and 50 nos. of Shelf Help Group (SHG) are promoting the fish production
and employment generation in the district.
15 numbers of Hatchery in the district are producing fish seed (spawn) which
were recorded near about 449.43 million during 2010-11. Total water area under PFCS is about 3,588.09 ha in which culturable water area is
about 2,081.72 ha and capturable water area is about 1,506.37 ha with a
total fish production of about 18332 MT during 2010-11.
Due to the topography and special condition of soil
& water of the district, the main
hurdle in fish production is higher fluctuation of water depth in monsoon and in the lean period.
For this reason most of the
tanks or water bodies are seasonal in nature which badly effect fish production. |
