Biology and Culture Potential of Chitala chitala

The humped featherback, Chitala chitala (Hamilton, 1822) represents an important fishery resource in different parts of South-East Asia and particularly in India. But due to overexploitation and habitat degradation this species has been categorised as endangered (EN) in the Conservation Assessment and Management Plan, 1998 and Near threatened by IUCN (2014). Therefore, large-scale farming would not only ensure the sustainable resource utilisation and biodiversity conservation, but also will help to widen the consumer’s preference for this new candidate species to diversify Indian freshwater aquaculture. For the successful culture practice the entire knowledge on the particular species is very important. Thus, we have made an effort to compile all the available information from different national and international publications with some very interesting data collected from the farmers who are presently culturing this important species to increase its production. We hope this contribution will definitely encourage the students and support the future researchers as well as the aqua culturists as a standard guide by providing all the updated research information on Chitala.