Our Correspondent Imphal, Sep. 25 (EMN): Manipur’s fishery department is taking up necessary steps to introduce locally-bred freshwater catfish popularly known as Sareng (Wallago Attu) at the fish fair-cum-fish mela in the upcoming Ningol Chakkouba, one of the biggest festivals of the state, officials said. Ningol Chakkouba (Ningol meaning married women and Chakkouba invitation for feast) falls on the second lunar day of Manipuri calendar ‘Hiyanggei.’ During the festival married women are invited to their parents’ home for the grand feast in which fish is the main menu. But due to unavailability of Sareng in the market as well as in the annual fishery department-sponsored fish mela, people of the state have been buying Sareng from outside the state spending extra money, since the fish is a part of culture and tradition of the state. For years the state has been buying Sareng from outside the state. After the import of Sareng seeds from the rivers and lakes of Bangladesh last year, few progressive farmers in the border state started to take up the initiative to revive Sareng in their ponds. The idea behind the initiative is to revive Sareng, which have vanished from the local water bodies due to...