Owing to the lack of sufficient rainfall, the prospects of inland fisheries in two of the three north-coastal districts of AP – Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam are not very promising. According to sources in the Visakhapatnam fisheries department, except in Madugula, Chodavaram and K Kotapadu areas, there is no water in any of the major reservoirs especially the two big reservoirs- Tandava and Raiwada. We are hoping that there will be more rains in the coming one month and so that we can release the fingerlings in the next couple of months. We have stocked four and a half crores of Spawn, which will be handed over to the societies if it rains very less, JD Fisheries, Visakhapatnam, P Lakshman Rao said. The JD further added that they have a contingency plan in place to release Fry’s of about 20 to 25 mm, in case the rains do not meet expectations as the Spawn may not survive for another week or two. The scenario in Srikakulam district, which has the largest in-land catchment area in the three north coastal districts, is far worse. Dr VV Krishna Murthy, the JD, Fisheries said, It’s a weird situation, we have no rains in Srikakulam district, we have had deficit rainfall, but the two main rivers, Vamsadhara and Nagavali are in spate because of the rains in Odisha. Apart from these two, all others are bone-dry and without adequate water, including the main reservoir, Maddi Valasa. Sources in the department said that they have stocked over 10 crore units of spawn, however, they pointed that the seed stocking process was done very late and as a result, they have a time span of almost a month to wait for more rains. If it does not rain in next two weeks, we do not have a choice but to go for a truncated contingency plan, Krishna Murthy added. However, as compared to the other two districts, things look far better in Vizianagaram district, where the reservoirs are full thanks to them being located close to the Odisha border. Sources in the department pointed out that all the major reservoirs such as the Thotapalli project, Peddagadda and Vengalaraya Sagar project, Vottigedda and Andra are full to capacity. We have readied 4.5 crore spawn units in our seed banks and the Spawn will be handed over to the farmers in a phase-wise manner in the next three weeks. We are confident of a good yield, the coming year, M Diwakar Rao, deputy director fisheries stated.