Past perfect: Variety fare in a market. A Telegraph file picture

After despair, it’s time for hope to be served on a lunch platter. Khoyra machher jhol, tyangra chachchari, mourolar jhol or pabdar jhal — which have all but made an exit from the menu — may soon stage a comeback.

Some popular species of fish like mourola, bata, koi, khoyra and tyangra are either too hard to come by in the market, or are too few in quantity which shoots up their prices far beyond what they used to be in the good old days. However, a recent government move might soon set that right.

The state government has woken up to the fact that fast action is needed to revive the natural habitat of at least some of the fish that the Bengali palate cannot do without. Loss of natural habitat is one of the key reasons for a variety of fish nearing extinction.

The state fisheries department has ordered field officers in all districts to compile reports for working out ways in which beels (ox-bow lakes) in the state can be revived.

“It has come to our notice that over 5,000 hectares of beels — the natural habitat for many common species like mourola, bata, koi, khoyra and tangra — has been lost to agricultural plots in the past 20 years. We want to start off by reviving the beels in order to increase the natural habitat of some of these fish which are fast becoming endangered,” a senior official of the state fisheries department said.

A survey conducted recently for the state by a non-government organisation, Aquatech Popularisation Society, showed that a lot of common fish like pabda, chitol, foli, punti, tangra, singhi, phasa, mourola, bhetki magur, koi, lyata, topsey, katkoi, shol, bata and so on are gradually reducing in number. “We are aware of the dangers of the loss of natural habitat for fish. The government wants to give them back their breeding waters,” the official added. Bengal contributes 694 species of fish to the national total of 2,200.

The survey had categorised fish as critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near-threatened, lower risk and those with remote risk. It had warned that the government must take measures for the preservation of the state’s lakes, sweet-water rivers, estuaries, and the sea. All kinds of fish have not been able to adapt to changes in the environment and their natural habitat.

The government’s field officers have been asked to conduct detailed surveys on areas that have been lost to agricultural land and frame out proposals on how the waterbodies can be revived. “For this, they have been asked to speak to local co-operative societies who might be interested in using the newly-formed beels for production of fish,” he said.

P. Das, project in-charge of the report compiled by Aquatech Popularisation Society, welcomed the state government’s move. “It indicates that the government is serious about reviving species that would have slowly but surely vanished.”