About UsUpdated · August 2026
About Us
The Sikkim Anglers’ Association
The Sikkim Anglers’ Association is a registered association of anglers and river people in Sikkim, established in 2000 and registered under No. 1130/LRD. For twenty-five years its members have worked the rivers of the state, and worked to keep them worth fishing.
That work is unglamorous and continuous: catch-and-release practice, watching over spawning stretches, clean-ups, and pressing the case for the river with the people who make decisions about it. The Association’s central concern is the golden mahseer, one of the great freshwater fish of the subcontinent, and the health of the Rangeet that holds it.
Chirbirey River Fest
Chirbirey River Fest is the Association’s festival, held for the first time from 25 to 27 September 2026 on the banks of the Rangeet river at “Chirbirey”. It is organised in collaboration with the Fisheries Department, Government of Sikkim.
It is a river festival for everyone: three days of art, music, food, wellness, craft, camping, angling and conservation on one stretch of water, put together by the people who know it best. Eleven activities run through the days, from pottery and Manga art to crash courses and the Chirbirey Masheer Challenge, alongside food, craft and market stalls from Sikkim’s makers.
The festival is built on three words, in this order. Flow is the river and the days it sets. Connect is the people it brings to the bank. Conserve is why any of it is worth doing.
What the festival is for
- To put the Rangeet and the mahseer in front of people who would otherwise never think about either.
- To give Sikkim’s makers, growers and small businesses a stage, and a market that carries on after the tents come down.
- To pass river practice on: catch-and-release, clean banks, and respect for the water, taught to the young participants who will inherit it.
- To fund and sustain the Association’s conservation work on the river through the year.
Contact
Sikkim Anglers’ Association
Tashi Building, near Amdo Golai,
Indra Byepass, Gangtok,
Sikkim, India – 737101
Registered No. 1130/LRD
chirbireyriverfest@gmail.com
Full contact details are on the Contact Us page.
Photo credits
Festival-ground and river photography by the Sikkim Anglers’ Association. Several activity images on the home page are via Unsplash (Unsplash Licence). Others are used under Creative Commons licences, with thanks to their photographers:
- Manga sketch · Fred Gallagher · CC BY-SA 2.5
- Potter’s wheel · BLW Photography · CC BY 2.0
- Fire · rileyroxx · CC BY 2.0
- Cooking on the beach · Thomas Guest · CC BY 2.0
- Kneading dough · Phil Gradwell · CC BY 2.0
- Amanita in green moss · Casey Helton · CC BY-SA 4.0
- White-throated kingfisher · Drashokk · CC BY-SA 4.0
