Farakka barrage and Hilsa

Why in news?

• An old project to facilitate the movement of hilsa upstream along the Ganga to its spawning grounds of yore may come to fruition this year.
• February 2019, the government had unveiled a project to redesign the navigation lock at the Farakka Barrage at a cost of Rs 360 crore to create a “fish pass” for the hilsa.
• Historical records also show that until the 1970s, the hilsa would swim the Ganga upstream to Allahabad — and even to Agra. But the Farakka Barrage, which became operational on the Ganga in 1975, disrupted the westward movement of the hilsa.

About the barrage:

• Farakka Barrage is a barrage across the Ganga river located in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal, roughly 18 kilometres from the border with Bangladesh.
• The purpose of the barrage is to divert 1,800 cubic metres per second of water from the Ganges to the Hooghly River for flushing out the sediment deposition from the Kolkata harbour without the need of regular mechanical dredging.
• Construction of the Farakka barrage started in 1962, was completed in 1970 at a cost of $208 million.
• The barrage is about 2,304 metres long.
• The Ganges river splits into two rivers - Bhagirathi-Hooghly River and Padma River, a little after Farakka Barrage and both flow into the Bay of Bengal.

Problems of the barrage:

• After commissioning the project, it was found that the diverted water flow from the Farakka barrage was not adequate to flush the sediment from the river satisfactorily.
• In addition, there are regular land/bank collapses into the Ganga river due to the high level back waters of the Farakka barrage.
• Farakka barrage has been criticized for the floods in Bihar as it is causing excessive siltation in the Ganga.

About Hilsa:

• The hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) is an anadromous fish.
• That is, it lives most of its life in the ocean, but during the rainy season, when it is time to spawn, the hilsa moves towards the estuary.
• The adult hilsa swims several kilometres upstream to freshwater from the sea for spawning and returns to saline water after that.
• Hilsa's peculiar habitat makes it impossible to breed it artificially through aquaculture, unlike other fish.
• The eggs hatch in freshwater and the sub-adult hilsa, called jatka, flows back downstream into the sea, a process that takes a few months.
• Two varieties of hilsa -- Tenualosa ilisha and Tenualosa toli ilisha -- are found in the marine and fresh waters of Bangladesh.
• Heavy fishing, Pollution and construction of dams has restricted the population of fishes and its ability to breed.
• Hilsa is a culinary item in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Farakka Barrage is located in:
(a)Bihar
(b)Tripura
(c)West Bengal
(d)Rajasthan

 Answer to the Prelims Question