The Western Himalayan State - Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) exhibits diverse water resources and fish fauna. The prospects for the development of capture fishery in these free water is very difficult and limited due to its Geo. - physical conditions as in the larger area of the northern districts the mountainous rivers are highly torrential as well as water remains turbid for a longer period (from March to September) of a year because of snow melting. To cash in these snow fed waters, exotic fish viz. Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Brown Trout (Salmo truta) were introduced to this state as early as 1886 constituting the basis of a local subsistence fishery and a sport fishery. However, it is limited to clear waters of northern most area specially in the Neelum and Leepa Valleys only. The Brown Trout has been released in free waters where they have established while the Rainbow Trout are being cultured in four small hatcheries in limited scale. A further constraint for the cold water fishery development is the irregularity of access to the above said valleys having high potentiality. Even a Preparatory Assistance (PA) phase of Cold Water Fisheries Development Project- PAK/88/048 was called off after the implementation of twelve months as the regular accessibility was not improved.
In spite of severe winter, AJK is also endowed with warm and hot climate for 5/6 months in the northern districts and 8/9 months in southern districts in a year which facilitate the development of warm water fish culture. Moreover, a number of private sector farmers in Muzaffarabad, Mirpur as well as the experimental results of fish culture at Nursing Unit at Panjgran have proved the possibility of warm water fish culture in AJK. Recently, GOAJK has realised the importance of the sub - sector - Fisheries and keeping in view the importance and interest of local farmers and a project Warm Water Fish Culture in Azad Jammu and Kashmir has been sanctioned with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 15.58 million for a period of three years.
