Sribadam: Where Water Sustains Life

IN SRIBADAM, TROUT FARMS OFFER HANDS-ON LEARNING, FRESH PRODUCE, AND A GLIMPSE INTO SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE LIFE

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Watching a stream run through the cement channels of his hatchery, 55-year-old Samdup Bhutia said, “Clean water is everything.

If the water stays pure, the fish and the people both do well.”

In Sribadam, 100 km from Gangtok, that idea feels literal. The village, about eight kilometres uphill from Soreng, sits at nearly 2,286 m and is fed by spring water that seeps through the forest.

The cold temperature and steady flow make it one of Sikkim’s most successful trout-farming belts. Rows of small ponds glint in the sun, and beside them stands Bhutia’s Rainbow Trout Hatchery, the first private one in the state.

He began in 2010 with just 500 fingerlings and a borrowed stream channel. Fourteen years later, he supplies fingerlings across Sikkim, Kalimpong, and Darjeeling. During the breeding months of November to February, his farm turns into a learning site. Farmers, students, and visitors gather to watch egg harvesting and observe how trout are raised in the running spring water.

“People come to learn, not just to look,” he said. “They realise how clean farming works.”