Urges quarantine facilities at major seaports, airports

Expressing concern over the increase in the import of ornamental fishes to the country, which is posing a threat to India’s native fish populations, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has urged the government to come up with quarantine facilities at major seaports and airports.

“The government of India has only approved the import of 92 species of ornamental fish but the number of ornamental fish species being imported and in trade is somewhere between 200-300,” Dr. B. Meenakumari, Chairperson, NBA, told The Hindu.

Dr. Meenakumari pointed out that the quarantine facility at the Chennai airport is mainly used for prawns meant for aquaculture and not for ornamental fish. She was in Kolkata to attend a workshop on the Economic and Ecological Impacts of Invasive Alien Species organised by Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN) from February 21-23.

Huge market

Dr. Meenakumari said the huge market for Invasive Alien Species (IAS) is turning out to be major threat to India’s aquatic biodiversity.

She also stressed on the need for educating and creating awareness among Customs officials at airports and seaports. Most of the fish are imported from southeast Asian countries, she said, adding that, sometimes, the cost of only a pair of fish can go up to lakhs of rupees.

S. Sandilyan, a Fellow on invasive alien species, who is associated with the NBA, said that both Kolkata and Chennai have emerged as a major hub for the trade of ornamental fish in the country and that an assessment of the online market for ornamental fish and aquariums will establish the presence of over 1,000 exotic fish species being traded in India.

In a research paper titled ‘Occurrence of ornamental fishes: A looming danger for inland fish diversity of India’ published in the science journal Current Science, the researcher has pointed out that export of such species has increased at an average annual rate of 14%.

The paper states that several studies have disclosed the occurrence of exotic ornamental fish in many inland aquatic systems, including biodiversity-sensitive areas such as the Western Ghats.

Dr. Sandilyan gave the example of suckermouth catfish, an ornamental species known as a ‘tank cleaner’ of aquariums, has spread to almost all freshwater ecosystems and outnumbers other native fish by feeding on their larvae and competing with them for food resources.

“Under the Centre for Biodiversity and Policy and Law (CEBPOL), the NBA is trying to bring out a national list of IAS. So far, no attempt has been made by any scientific organisation to have a national IAS list across different categories like terrestrial plants, aquatic plants, inland fisheries, marine organisms, insects and microbes,” Dr. Meenakumari said.

The list will be put made available on a public platform and will be communicated to different Ministries and stakeholders. The announcement by NBA assumes significance as scientists and experts in the country are still divided over the number of IAS and their economic and ecological impact.

Biodiversity policy

CEBPOL is a bilateral collaboration between the Indian and Norwegian governments, and focuses on biodiversity policies and laws.

While the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have come up with some tentative lists for animal and plant IAS, there remains a debate on how to standardise the invasiveness of specific species.

T.V. Sajeev, Coordinator, APFISN, said that while the number of publications on IAS has increased over the past few years, there has been no coordinated effort for the management of IAS. He added that statisticians and biologists need to come together for distribution mapping and the application of statistical approaches in the management of IAS.