Bhubaneswar, March 17: Odisha has adopted the Mahanadi mahasheer as the state fish. The fish has been adopted to promote its conservation.

Thanks to the efforts of the Lucknow-based National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR), an institute that works for the development of fish genetics and related topics, sixteen other states have also adopted fish species peculiar to their region as their state fish.

In Bengal, it is hilsa and Bihar’s state fish is magur. Mackerel is our national fish.

“In India there are 2,500 species of fishes out of which 2,358 are indigenous varieties and 291 are exotic types and the rest are marine types. Increase in river and environmental pollution has led to many species of fishes facing the threat of extinction. In an effort to conserve the fishes we have started sensitising people, institutions and non-government organisations. Seventeen states have volunteered to name the important fishes of their regions as the state fish. Odisha has named mahasheer, which is an important fish that has its origin in the Himalayan region,’’ said director of the fish bureau J.K. Jena.

Local residents of Huma and Maneswar near Sambalpur on the banks of the Mahanadi refer to the mahasheer as kado. In an ancient folk tale, a fisherman’s wife was turned into stone while cutting a kado. A monument on an island opposite the Huma temple has statues of the fisherman and his wife. “Mahasheer” in Odia means big (maha) head (sheer).

Speaking to The Telegraph on the sidelines of a national conference on “Aquaculture: Fish for Billion’’, Jena said scientists of the national fish bureau had taken up surveys in the eastern and north-eastern regions of the country discover new species, as fisheries experts believe that many kinds of fish remain hidden from the world.

The two-day national conference started here today in the temple city commemorating 25 years of the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Kausalyaganga, and Association of Aquaculturists.

“The country is producing 8.13 metric tonnes of fish a year. Freshwater production alone is 4.1 MT. Marine, riverine, reservoir and dam fish production are on the decline because of climate change. Freshwater aquaculture will be the major source of protein production in the future. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has targeted producing 12 MT of freshwater fish by the year 2020. There is a lot to be done on conservation of fish genetic resources,’’ the scientist said.

The fish institute has planned a project to start the genetic mapping of fishes such as rohu and magur.

“The Lucknow-based institute is also conducting DNA fingerprinting to know the name of a fish to settle court cases. In an interesting case, a person sued a five-star hotel in Mumbai as he thought that he had been cheated by the chef and was never given pomfret in a dish he was served. The Mumbai court referred the test to NBFGR and by DNA fingerprinting we found out that the fish was not pomfret,” said Jena.

The genetic research will also help in checking theft of exotic fish species and controlling diseases in fishes as imported fishes sometimes come with diseases. The national fish institute is a premier centre in the world in conducting research in fish quarantine methods.

Director of the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture P. Jayasankar said that after 25 years of excellent performance, the central institute was going to enhance the budget allocation for research from Rs 48 crore in the 11th five-year plan to Rs 150 crore in the 12th five-year plan.

“We are going to strengthen our research base in genetic upgrade of common varieties, disease control and development of resistant varieties, biotechnology tools and field-level technologies,’’ the senior scientist said.