Coldwater fisheries have a great potential in generating rural income and providing food security to the rurals in Indian uplands and its sustainable utilization and development have assumed importance in coldwater regions of the country. The ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, Bhimtal has been continuously providing empirical inputs through imparting quality research and services for sustainable coldwater fisheries production, management and conservation.

During the year 2017-18, ICAR-DCFR has undertaken comprehensive coldwater fisheries and promotion of hill aquaculture for enhancing farmer's income in particular and overall development of coldwater fisheries sector in the country through scientific innovations, technological improvements and farmer oriented approaches. Trailing our endeavours and commitments, Directorate has been working towards resource assessment and advancement in GIS based site suitability maps of Leh and Ladakh, generating GIS maps of ichthyofaunal distribution covering major drainages of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand along with eco-biological study of selected mountain lakes of central and north eastern Himalayan region.

Advancements in hill aquaculture includes captive maturation and spawning of golden mahseer through photo-thermal manipulations, development of captive breeding and rearing protocols of Neolissochilus hexagonolepis, Barilius bendelisis, Naziritor chelynoides, Schistura spp., Bangana devdevi, Osteobrama belangeri under controlled conditions. Screening and identification of histology based appetite markers for devising feeding regimen in golden mahseer larvae; characterization of myogenic regulatory transcripts to understand muscle growth mechanism in slow growing Schizothorax richardsonii; evaluation of rainbow trout starter feed at phenotypic and molecular levels; development of two efficient and cost-effective single and multiple protein based rainbow trout starter feeds was the prime research achievements of this Directorate during this period. Standardization of composite carp culture with indigenous species L. dyocheilus and exotic carps for mid altitudes in polytanks and successful triploidy induction in rainbow trout has also been achieved. Under the national project on innovations in climate resilient agriculture (NICRA), attempts are being made to develop a multi-pronged strategy to counter the climate change related challenges faced by rainbow trout farmers. The issues and challenges of coldwater fish diseases are precisely being addressed by putting sincere efforts in disease surveillance of coldwater fish farms, identification of pathogens and development of management measures including screening of fungicidal effect of various anti-fungal drugs. The modern techniques of molecular biology and biotechnology are imperative to address the issues related to aquaculture and species development more precisely. The Directorate has made significant achievements in peptide synthesis using Fmoc-chemistry, In-silico identification and designing of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) from fish viral proteins, gene reporter assays using Mx promoter of rainbow trout and IRF3 promoter of snow trout for development of an engineered cell line for the detection of any viralsignal and optimization of protocol for synthesis of Polyhexamethylenebiguanide (PHMB) stabilized cationic silver nano particles (AgNPs).