Fishy danger

THE controversial tilapia, a fast-breeding African fish, has been surreptitiously used by a company near Madras for pollution control experiments, despite a ban. Although the Union department of biotechnology had initially permitted the introduction of tilapia for pollution control and funded experimental projects that used them, it has been subsequently found that the fish poses a serious ecological threat because it breeds very fast, eats voraciously and starves other fish to death. "Its possible escape into the open water system during floods may have a devastating effect on India's fish resources," warns to P V Dehadrai, deputy director general for fisheries at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

The fish, which caused an ecological disaster in Africa in the '60s by choking up many waterways, has already replaced endemic species in the reservoirs of Malampuzha, Amravati and Vaigai in south India. According to Dehadrai, fish resources in India have already been damaged by human interventions and the introduction of tilapia would only exacerbate the process