Anglers in Manipur fish to stir conservation message for rare fish

Our Correspondent

Imphal, April 16 (EMN): The second ‘state level angling competition’ for 2018 in Manipur which aims to about spread publicity for the conservation of rare and threatened fish of the state was conducted on April 15 in Imphal.

The competition was conducted under aegis of the All Manipur Angling Association (Amaa) at Wabagai Tera Urak-pat, a wetland about 45 km south of Imphal, under Kakching district.

Altogether 90 anglers across the state participated in the day-long competition. S Premjit of Thangmeiband bagged the ‘first position excellence’ award along with a cash prize of INR 3000 and a standard angling rod.

Kh Nikheel of Singjamei and N Tomba of Thongju were adjudged the second and third position winners and given a cash prize of INR 2000 and INR 1000 in that order; and a standard angling rods each.

“The idea behind organising such a small scale of competition was organised to promote sports-fishing and brotherhood,” said Keisham Jibonchandra, President of AMAA, when contacted through phone. “In fact we’ve a clear vision for our future but we couldn’t take up some of the important programs including awareness on sustainable fishing due to our limitations.”

Amaa, a registered body in Manipur, was established in 2013. It has around 140 members who work in diverse professions. They started to explore ways and means to promote fishing as a sports event apart from taking up conservation of indigenous fishes of the state. As part of their first venture, Amaa had organised its first state level angling competition at Lairen-pat, a wetland near Standard College Kongba, in Imphal East district in 2014.

“Currently we contribute and take up the initiatives in a brotherhood manner. Whenever we are together, we discuss and share our ideas to protect the habitats of some of the listed indigenous fish species through our experiences that we discover from our wetland and rivers,” Jibonchandra added. “We’ve even listed about 30 indigenous fishes including Tharak, Khabak, Meitei Ngamu, Ngakijou, Sareng-khoibi etc.”

Interestingly some anglers of Manipur had already won angling competition conducted in Nagaland during the recent past.