Jharkhand State Co-operative Fisheries Federation Ltd, also known as Jhascofish, is planning to launch “matsya avlokan sair” or guided fish tours at its training centre at Shalimar in Dhurwa to make people, especially students, researchers and entrepreneurs, aware of the state’s richness in this sector. Besides facilitating leisurely strolls around fish ponds, the programme aims to inform people about various schemes undertaken by the state fisheries department to promote fishery. Those interested can enjoy the 35-40 minute guided tours for free on all days except Sundays. The tours will be conducted twice a day at 10am and 2pm. Jhascofish CEO Manoj Thakur said he was planning to introduce the facility by the end of this month. “State agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry department secretary Puja Singhal is currently on leave. We are waiting for her to return to get the proposal cleared formally. In all likelihood, we will start it from the last week of June,” Thakur said. Thakur said he got the idea during his visit to Chandigarh where capital complex walks were conducted. They take you on guided tours to high court building complex, secretariats and world heritage sites. The walks are fairly interesting. I thought why not fish parks?” he said, adding that the training centre at Shalimar comprises a host of ponds breeding numerous varieties of fish, hatcheries and fish seed factories. On what one can expect in these tours, he said they would begin with a 10-minute audio-visual presentation on what fishery is all about, the initiatives undertaken and new innovations introduced by the state. “People will also be taken to the breeding centres for live demonstrations, hatcheries, cage culture section and the feed plant. There will also be an exhibition of various fish products from where people can buy if they wish to,” he said. According to Thakur, farmers from various states are coming to Jharkhand to learn new techniques in fishery but local people aren’t much aware about good work undertaken by the fisheries department. “Such exposure trips can motivate someone to take up fishery as their career or launch their own start-ups here,” he added.