Mangaluru: In a bid to introduce fishing in Pilikula Nisarga Dhama lake, tens of thousands of fish fingerlings have been introduced into the lake on Saturday, September 24. This move is not only for an angler’s club but also for an annual pre-monsoon lake fish festival.
Jayaprakash Bhandary, the Director of Pilikula Nisarga Dhama said, “The massive lake is spread over 10 acres and has a depth of 20 feet. And for five months a year, the lake has a depth of 30 feet which makes it perfect for lake pisciculture. Last year, we had inaugurated the angling club in Pilikula. And this year, we have introduced more than 30,000 fish fingerlings into the lake to develop angling as a hobby.”
Taking a peek into the past of Pilikula’s lake, Jayaprakash said, “In 1997, Pilikula (Tulu is a word for Tigers’ Lake) was a dried up pond. But soon after we decided to develop it, we found out that the pond was a huge lake and had a laterite plate under it. With the permission from the district administration, we excavated the lake to as large as it can get. A study about the ridgelines of the lake bank was made in order to realise that below the lake bed, there was a thick laterite sheet.”
After sponsoring the fish seed for the lake, the Managing Director of the Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation (KFDC), V K Shetty concluded, “The Common Carp variety of fish seed has been released into the lake. This variety will gain body weight quickly over a period of five months. I have directed Pilikula authorities on how to feed the fish so that they can be harvested while at peak.”
Pilikula Nisarga Dhama is always one of Mangaluru’s favourite holiday destinations which has a golf club, a zoo, a water park, an artisans’ village and much more spread over an area of 386 acres in total.
