Coldwater recourses of India harbour 258 fish species belonging to 21 families and 76 genera having sports and ornamental value and majorities are considered as food fishes.
There are two basic types of fisheries exist in the Indian Himalaya: subsistence/low scale commercial fishery and sport/recreational fishery. Fish production in the mountain region is low. The low biological productivity results in the prevalence of small-sized fish. Water temperature is always an important limiting factor influencing geographical distribution and local occurrence. In Indian Himalaya, the fish production contributes minimum to the overall freshwater fish production in the country. To meet the ever-increasing demands of fishes in hills, there has been urgent need for creation of innovative infrastructure facilities, modernization of hatcheries and farm, introduction of improved strain of coldwater fish species in the hill fish farming. Diversification of fish species in the upland aquaculture is very much essential for up scaling three pronged fish farming system. It is noteworthy to mention that with the incorporation of scientific technologies in hill fish farming, the production is increased significantly improving the livelihood security of the upland people.
Development of brood and seed bank, formulation and preparation of low cost feed for trout, incorporation of RAS for enhancing coldwater fish production, conservation of indigenous fish fauna of coldwater region are the priorities which are going to be discussed in this paper.