The Manipur valley is associated with lakes, rivers, wetland including one of the biggest fresh water lake the Loktak. People of the state had been depending on the water bodies to get fish. With the rise in population the demand for fish has grown up drastically. Fish remains the favourite dish. Manipur Fisheries Minister N. Kayisii said the government is trying to increase fish production. He said the state produces 32,000 metric tonnes of fish against the annual estimated requirement of 52,000 metric tonnes. Kayisii said his ministry is working for “Better Management Practices for Fish Culture” and a booklet was also prepared for dissemination to the farmers, Fish is imported mostly from southern states and as the journey is long and arduous it was suspected that formalin was used to preserve the fish. The fear led to the ban of import of fish by the state Food Safety department in June last. It was also suspected that the imported fish was not properly maintained and hormone used to increase weight. As formalin and hormone used in the process were harmful to the human bodies the ban was imposed. The ban has led to serious debate between fish traders and the state government officials and test was done on the imported fish. Formalin was found in many cases and after the government clamp down , use of formalin was stopped and import partially allowed. The people of the state however were reluctant to use the imported fish and health conscious people stopped using the imported fish. It led to drastic increase in rise in prices of local fishes and on special occasion shortage of fish was experienced. People continued to buy imported fish for two reasons, low price and easy availability. Preserved and processed fish are also imported in huge quantity from Myanmar through the border town of Moreh but Myanmar is not able to provide fresh fish to Manipur. Fish traders said as people were conscious about health and test kits were available to detect formalin, use of formalin has been stopped and ice was used to preserve the fish. Loktak lake remains the biggest source of fish in the state but the construction of Ithai barrage has led to non -availability of large numbers of fishes in the lake. The barrage stopped the upward flow to the lake from the rivers and fishes which flowed towards the lake from the downstream area have stopped coming the lake. Fishers at Loktak lake said the fish from downstream areas were in high demand and the sudden stopping of upward water flow led to serious changes in the availability of fish and environment of the lake. Experts and the Manipur government have demanded demolition of the barrage as serious environmental hazards were caused. It also led to decrease in size of the lake. Water bodies were gradually decreasing as people have filled up water bodies to construct houses. Only few water bodies remain and of the biggest water body area like Lamphelpat has no trace of water now. Government offices, quarters have been constructed resulting in serious floods in the city areas. The other sources of fish that is the river were mostly polluted hence it was not possible to seriously take fish farming in the rivers, officials said. The only solution was digging ponds in the low lying areas and taking up fish farming. Fish farming can’t be done in hill areas in large scale hence it was concentrated in the valley areas. The farmers said frequent flood caused serious problems . In the flood that occurred last month the fishes were washed away hence the farmers lost all their investments , they said. It is problematic as it has to be done in low lying areas prone to flood. Flood management should be given special attention to help the farmers. With people demanding good quality tasty fishes, land availability decreasing day by day supply of the favourite food of the state remains the greatest challenge today.