
Maun Mela fishing festival and traffic near twin bridges in Uttarakhand
festival · hills
Maun Mela, a traditional community fishing festival held along the Aglar River in the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India.
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The demand for pearls is high in India, but it is mostly met through imports. Pearl farming is not that easy as we think. The idea is to use indigenous freshwater mussels found in rivers, lakes or ponds to develop pearls. Mussels are available everywhere locally, but people don’t know that pearls can be cultured in mussels.” The shell fish are then tied in nets and are kept hanging in a pond or river. The mussels are fed with algae, cow dung and groundnut for a year, by which time the pearls are ready to be harvested. “We hope to get fishermen to culture pearls. It can be done along with fish farming. While cultivating 1,000 mussels, about 300 to 400 mussels can be cultured for pearls. The cost of culturing one pearl is Rs 12 to Rs 15, but it fetches a price of Rs 250 to Rs 1,000.” Pearl a
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festival · hills
Maun Mela, a traditional community fishing festival held along the Aglar River in the Tehri Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India.

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