DACHIGAM: Brought from Scotland to the Himalayas a century ago, the Kashmiri trout has weathered wars and rebellions. And now the industry believes it can export the fish back to Europe.

Raising their fish in natural streams, Kashmiris claim their trout is the healthiest and the tastiest, with none of the sponginess of the fish bred in the industrial-like pools in the West.

"Kashmir waters are very good, rich in oxygen," said Nissar Ahmed, the number two in the state fisheries department, as his aides proudly showed a gleaming trout with its distinctive magenta markings.

Dachigam, in the forest under the snow-capped mountains, is one of 24 trout farms in Indian-administered Kashmir. The farms together have a yearly yield of 100 metric tons. But with help for the industry coming in from New Delhi and European governments, Ahmed expects trout production to shoot up.

The fisheries have obtained a Dutch-made feedmill that churns out 500 kilograms of trout feed an hour. Four more feedmills are coming through French assistance.

"Once all the five machines start working our trout production will shoot up to 500 metric tons," Ahmed said. "After making good the local consumption, the surplus stocks will be exported to Europe," he said.

But he acknowledged a number of "irritants" stood in the way of fish exports. To begin with, there is no international airport in Indian-held Kashmir, which is in the throes of a 15-year-long insurgency that has claimed more than 40,000 lives by official count.

The province also suffers recurring power outages. It was the British who introduced trout to Kashmir waters. The first consignment of 10,000 trout eggs were sent from England by the Duke of Bedford in 1899 but died en route.

On Dec 19, 1900, however, a new batch sent from Scotland arrived in excellent condition, and their descendants continue to be bred in Kashmir. The fisheries department started cultivating trout in large numbers in the mid-1980s and its success has lured three other Indian states - Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim - to seek assistance from Kashmir. -AFP