Dr. Hiralal Chaudhuri: Father of induced breeding

Item Type article

Authors Primavera, Jurgenne H.

Download date 02/10/2021 16:10:54

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/35086 Dr. Hiralal Chaudhuri: father of induced breeding

(Dr Hiralal Chaudhuri was recently honored by the World Aquaculture Society as Honorary Life Member He has worked with AQD in the 70s and '80s, and has made quite an impres­ sion on AQD researchers, in particular Dr. Jurgenne Primavera who wrote the following summary of Dr. Chaudhuri's career accom ­ plishments in aquaculture. This summary is reprinted from World Aquaculture, D ecem ­ ber 1997).

Freshwater fish are the top aquaculture commodity, comprising 66% of the total 1993 aquaculture production of about 16 million metric tons. Such production owes At AQD, Dr. Chaudhuri headed the training and extension group (1976-1979), and much to a quiet and unassuming scientist worked on induced spawning of milkfish (1985-1988). from , Dr. H. Chaudhuri, who pio­ neered the use of reproductive hormones in finfish culture and has trained numerous technical manuals, monographs and other tive training program of the SEAFDEC/ fisheries workers all over Asia. publications. In September 1994, a AQD and FAO Network of Aquaculture Hiralal Chaudhuri was born 21 No­ colloquium on “Applications of Endocri­ Centres in Asia. As his next-door neighbor vember 1921 in , India, and finished nology to Pacific Rim Aquaculture” was in the housing complex in Tigbauan, I his secondary and higher education with the held in his honor at the University of Cali­ would see him painstakingly gather from help of Indian government scholarships. He fornia - Bodega Marine Laboratory. the ground the freshly fallen fruits of the received his undergraduate and Master’s Under the sponsorship of the United popular tropical tree Muntingia calabura degrees in Zoology from University of Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza­ and offer these to local children who lined Calcutta which also granted him the Ph.D. tion, his expertise in freshwater fish breed­ up early each morning for the delicious red in Zoology in 1961. Another M.S. (in Fish­ ing and grow-out has been shared with ex­ berries. He was as generous with the fruits eries Management) was awarded to him by tension workers and other government of­ of his garden as those of his research. Auburn University in 1955 for his thesis ficials in many countries including India, After a visiting professorship at the on the effect of pituitary injections on pond , , the former Soviet Union, University of the in Los Baños fish reproduction. and Fiji. in 1988-1993, he retired and returned with As researcher with the Central Inland He also served as Project Coordinator his wife Mukul to Calcutta where they now Fisheries Research Institute in Cuttack for and Chief Technical Adviser of the FAO/ enjoy occasional visits from their grown­ the greater part of three decades (1948- UNDP Aquaculture Project in Vietnam and up daughter Soma and son Shubham. In 1976), he made his greatest contributions Lao PDR in 1979-1984. In the Philippines,February of this year, Burdwan University to aquaculture in the hormonal induction he served as Regional Coordinator and in , India awarded him an hon­ of breeding in Indian major carps and ex­ Deputy Director of (SEAFDEC / AQD's) orary Doctor’s degree in recognition of a otic Chinese carps, hybridization of cul­ Asian Institute of Aquaculture in Iloilo, lifetime devoted to aquaculture research tured carps, improved nursery management Philippines in 1976-1979 and again as Vis­and service. of fish, and the “composite culture” or iting Scientist in 1985-1988. polyculture of Indian and Chinese carps. It was during the latter stint that I J.H. Primavera The results of his many studies can be found worked closely with him in the collabora­ SEAFDEC/AQD in more than 60 research papers, reviews,

SEAFDEC Asian Aquaculture Vol. XX No. 2 April 199811