File photo of Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb.

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Updated on: August 28, 2018, 5:46 PM IST

August 28, 2018, 5:46 PM IST FOLLOW US ON: Facebook Twitter Instagram

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who has a habit of making bizarre statements, is at it again. This time he has landed himself in a controversy for saying that ducks can increase oxygen levels in water bodies by swimming in them.

Deb was addressing an inaugural event of a traditional boat race at Rudrasagar, an artificial lake around water palace Neermahal, when he said that he wants to distribute ducks among villagers in the state because he believes they will boost the rural economy.


“When ducks swim in water, oxygen level automatically increases in the water body. It (oxygen) gets recycled. Fish in the water will get more oxygen. They also benefit from the bird droppings. Thus, pisciculture (fish farming) will benefit and fish will grow faster, that too in a completely organic way,” a report in The Indian Express quoted Deb as saying.

According to Deb, the benefits of duck-rearing do not end there. He said children would greatly benefit from additional protein and vitamin supplements if every family in the area kept at least five ducks.


Deb has a habit of finding himself in a spot almost every time he makes a statement.

In April, the chief minister had claimed that the Internet is nothing new to India and that it existed even in the days of Mahabharata. Then in May, he had claimed that Rabindranath Tagore “gave away his Nobel Prize” in protest against the British.


He made the statement in an apparent reference to Tagore's protest against Jallianwalla Bagh massacre of 1919.