From guns to gills: How fish farming is transforming former Naxalites in Jharkhand

Gumla district was removed from Union Home Ministry's list of Naxalite-affected areas in May 2025

- OUR CORRESPONDENT

GUMLA: Former insurgents in western Jharkhand are trading guns for fishing nets under a central government scheme that has helped transform a once violence-torn region and contributed to its removal from a list of Naxalite-affected areas.

Jyothi Lakra, 41, was once part of a Naxalite group before abandoning the Left-wing insurgency in 2002. Today, he runs a fish feed mill that earned him Rs 8,00,000 in net profit last year under the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) scheme.

"There were no shops selling fish feed nearby. Villagers had to travel 150 km to buy fish feed," said Lakra, who received a Rs 18 lakh grant to set up his mill in Gumla district's Basia block. "So I decided to set up a fish feed mill," he told the news agency.