Brief:Himachal Pradesh wakes up to artificial pearl harvest – a new, environment-friendly business avenue.

Details :When 72-year-old Pandit Dinanath visited the Fisheries department office in Una district of Himachal Pradesh, he had no inkling his life was about to change.

Gone to inquire about subsidies available on check dams, he wanted to build one, on a nullah behind his house, to breed fish.

he fisheries department officials came to inspect the water stream in his village Ambehra Ramkrishan. One of them saw a shell, picked it and put it in his pocket.

A traditional healer, or vaid by training, Panditji was curious about this opportunity. “Why did you do that?” he asked the official.

“You can harvest pearls from these animals,” he was told.

Four years since, he is not only a wealthy pearl harvester, but also an inspiration for seven more farmers involved in fresh water pearl culture in Una district.


“I have sold about 50 pearls in last four years, for Rs 5,000 each,” Dinanath says, “These mussel shells have always been there in the nullah. If I knew earlier, I would have spent a better part of my life breeding pearls.”

Dinanath’s bill book shows that his product is now well-recognised in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

In India, pearls are sold more for their astrological significance than ornamental value. A Delhi businessman has bought 20 pearls at once for Rs 1,00,000. Dinanath has given a pearl free of charge to a person affected by planetary positions.

“Just like other precious stones, if a pearl does not suit somebody, it would give negative vibes. But it if does, life could definitely change for better,” Dinanath says.

Dinanath has attended a training course at the Central Institute of Fresh Water Aquaculture in Bhuvaneswar. The course taught him how to breed mussels and induce pearl formation.

If done naturally, the process of pearl formation could take years, depending on the life of the organism known as the mussel, inside the shell. This natural mechanism is replicated in pearl harvesting, albeit the nucleus, around which the pearl is deposited by the mussel, is introduced artificially.

Ashok Verma, Assistant Director of Fisheries explains: “A pre-designed cast called nucleus is introduced in the space between the shell and the tissue. Being irritated by a foreign body, the mussel releases a substance, called the Mother of Pearl, over it.”

Verma helped Dinanath identify the mussels in the water body for the first time, thus initiating the pearl culture business in Una. “Not all species of mussels can produce pearls. Out of the three we have in the rivers of Himachal, only Lamellaedense Marginelis is suitable for pearl formation,” said Verma.

The Una Fisheries Department is currently importing the nucleus from China, while the pre-cast nucleus in a variety of shapes is made in Cuttack. Mostly made from powdered shell, each nucleus costs Dinanath about Rs 10-15.

Radius Corporation Limited, based in Chattisgarh also manufactures nucleus, but exports them all, Verma informs.

Dinanath farms for pearls in two ponds spread over one acre of land. He claims to have produced 2600 pearls in one year.

“The input costs includes that of nucleus, buying mussels to breed them, fish feed, nets and labour. The profit may be considerable, but the process is delicate. Even a small weather fluctuation can kill these animals,” Dinanath elaborates.

For example, last year, the embankment of Dinanath’s pond gave in during rainfall. The pond dried up instantly. “Many mussels died and several were washed off. The loss ran into crores of rupees,” he adds.
To know more about possible problems in pearl farming, CLICK HERE.

Ashok Verma believes that Una in Himachal Pradesh has the right atmosphere for pearl breeding, since it has a number of water bodies along with the Swan River.

Some pearl breeders source the mussels from the Pong dam reservoir, 82 kms away from Una. “Since it is stagnant water, mussels breed very well there,” Verma says.

Yashpal Rana, in his twenties, probably the youngest entrepreneur to enter the business in Una, has bought about 6,500 mussels from the Pong reservoir. Another 14,000 were sourced from the rivers and nullahs in the area

“I have been breeding them for four months in my half-acre pond now. Their size has increased considerably. There is a clear difference in the size of mussels from Pong and those from local rivers,” Rana observes.

To avoid mussel mortality, Rana has put a net on the boundary of his pond. “I invested Rs 60,000 in constructing this pond and adding some fish seed in it. It collects rain water, so the pearl harvest is a good business option here,” he says.

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