Fisheries department Punjab is one of the oldest department in the Fisheries Department in the Country. The department was established in 1912 with the appointment of Mr. G.G.L. Howell I.C.S. as Director & Warden of Fisheries. Main activity of the Fisheries Department was to exploit and conserve Fisheries resources in the natural waters. The Punjab Fisheries Act was framed in 1914 under Fisheries Act, 1897. In addition to 5 major rivers in the State, there were large-stretches of waters and lakes available for the production of fish. The catching fish on licensing system was in vogue. Keeping in view, the economy in expenditure, after 1st World War, the department was merged with the Agriculture Department and the post of Director and Warden of Fisheries was reduced to the Warden of Fisheries. Mr. Donald became the Warden of Fisheries in 1915 and afterward Dr. Khan took over as Warden of Fisheries till partition of the country in 1947.

After independence the Fisheries Department was managed by two Governments i.e. Punjab Government and PEPSU Government. In PEPSU Fisheries Department was attached to Forest Department while in Punjab it was attached to Animal Husbandry Department. The activity of the Fisheries Department was to exploit and conserve the fishes in natural waters. In PEPSU Government the fishing rights of the natural waters used to leased out to the contractor annually whereas in Punjab the system of licensing was followed.

It was in PEPSU that Mirror Carp and scale carp, species of fish were introduced and made to breed in the Fish Seed Farm, Patri Khan (Patiala) in 1952 for the first time in the country. In 1956 the Fisheries Department of PEPSU was merged with Fisheries Department of Punjab State. During the first five year plan, Scheme for the stocking of village ponds in the three districts i.e. Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Amritsar was introduced for production of fish as food in the State.

The Punjab Fisheries Department was separated from Animal Husbandry Department in the year 1962 and started functioning as independent Department. Dr. D. Bhatia became the first Director and Warden of Fisheries. The activity of the Fisheries Department was extended for covering more pond water area under fish culture in addition to the conservation of fisheries in the natural water bodies. During the year 1958-59, five cold storage plants at Amritsar, Ludhiana, Sonipat, Patiala and Kapurthala were established for better preservation and storage of surplus fish under the cold chain scheme of Government of India. During the year 1961-62 induced breeding of Indian Major Carps was undertaken in the state for the first time in Northern India. The main activity of the department was to develop Fisheries in Bhakhra reservoir, stocking of Chandigarh lake, demonstration of fish culture in 400 hectare water area, setting up of 5 fish seed farms, providing training to fisheries personals, survey of culturable waters and survey fish seed sources of the State and establishment of Fisheries Research Station-cum-Aquarium. By the end of 1965-66. Punjab Fisheries Department was responsible for stocking of fast growing fishes in Gobindsagar.

During the year 1966, under the reorganization of States Haryana and Himachal Pradesh States were carved out from the combined Punjab State. Numerous good fisheries resources such as Gobind Sagar, the river Yamuna became the part of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. Sh. A.K.Kawatra became the Director & Warden of Fisheries of the Fisheries Department in 1964. Exploitation and Conservation of fisheries in natural water bodies was the main activity. New Fish seed farms at Amritsar, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur and Patiala were established to produce quality fish seed in the state. The scheme for the renovation of village ponds was introduced to increase the scope of social fisheries.

A break through for the actual development of social fisheries was made during this period. Ist Fish Farmer Development Agency in Gurdaspur district was established in the year 1976 to create a unique class of trained fish farmers. New fish seed farms to supply quality fish seed to the fish farmers at Katli(Ropar) and Haryiana (Hoshiarpur) under World Bank Scheme for development of fisheries in Kandi Area. 2 New Fish seed farms at Dhandua (Shahed Bhagat Singh Nagar) and Phaganmajra (Fatehgarh Sahib) were constructed under Central Scheme National Fish Seed Programme.

During the period 1983-91, 2 fish seed hatcheries were constructed and 6 more fish farmer development agencies one each in the district of Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Bhatinda, Kapurthala, Ferozepur and Faridkot were set-up covering the entire state under the fish farmers development agency programme. Thus by the end of 7th five year plan, 12 fish seed farms were in full operational form and the entire state had been brought under fish farmers development agency programme. The introduction of fish farmers development agency programme proved a big success and a step towards bringing blue revolution in the state and 12 fish farmer development agencies had been set-up one in each district of the state. New fisheries rules for the conservation of fisheries in natural waters were framed in 1985. Later on 4 more fish seed farms one each in the district Sangrur, Bhatinda, Ferozepur and Faridkot were set up thus raising the number of govt. fish seed farms to 14.

At present Dr. Madan Mohan is the Director & Warden of Fisheries, Punjab who has assumed charge of this office on 8-7-2015. During his tenure various important steps have been taken to promote fish culture in the State. A State Fisheries Development Board has been set up in the State which has helped in boosting fish culture in the State.

Special emphasis is being laid down to bring more and more saline affected water logged areas of the south-west districts viz Shri Mukatsar Sahib, Ferozepur, Mansa, Fazilka and Faridkot of the State under fish culture. Various check dams and small reservoirs in the State were notified during the years 1987(Dolbaha, Maili and Janaury), 1997(Perch Dam, Mehngrowal, chohal and Saleran), 2006(Ranjit Sagar Dam), 2012 (Patiarhi, Thana and Jainti) and 2013 (Mirzapur and Siswan). There are 13 notified reservoirs in the State. Punjab State is having good inland resources comprising of 868 km of rivers, 11200 Km of Canals, 14510 acres of small water reservoirs and lakes. In addition to this there are 9318 village ponds covering an area of 32597 acres in various districts of the State. The fishing rights of the check dams/reservoirs are leased out for five years and those of rivers, canals etc are leased out annually in an open auction. The revenue generated from auction of fishing rights of these water bodies during the year 2014-15 is Rs.2,08,02,000/- which is increasing steadily every year.