Different types of fishing gear and method used in Gelabeel, an oxbow lake of golaghat District

Gelabeel is an oxbow lake of upper Assam. A wide range of fishing gears and methods are used by the fisher folk of the wetland. The survey results revealed that about 14 categories of fishing gears and methods are in use for fishing in Gelabeel. Use of fine meshed net, over exploitation of fish during festival seasons, use of poison are some of the harmful practices of fishing observed in the study area. ‘Katal mara’ or ‘jeng fishing’ is another destructive fishing technique observed during the study. These are potential threats to the fish biodiversity of the wetland.