Fishery in Paddy Fields in Purba Medinipur District, West Bengal, India

India, my country is blessed with almost all types of natural resources of water bodies and huge number of fish biodiversity. Paddy field is a natural water resource and fishery in paddy field is one of the most important fisheries in West Bengal. This paper is written on the basis of my own practical experience. During the last two decades of twenty century, a large amount of fish and prawns were caught from paddy fields and marketed in different fish markets in the district of Purba Medinipur. About 24 varieties of fin fishes and shellfishes (prawns) were caught from the paddy field. From the beginning of the twenty- first century, paddy field fishery has been decreasing and now it stands on the bottom level due to malpractices in paddy culture techniques.