The Hindu
MANGALORE, May 25: The National Fishworkers’ Forum Chairperson Harekrishna Debnath on Saturday painted a grim future for fishermen what with the fish catch dwindling fast in the coastal areas. This had forced fishermen to take the risk of entering international waters.
He told presspersons here that fishermen who used to venture into the sea for four hours a day, now need to be away from the coast for two to three days to land the same catch.
They were already in a situation of “more fishing, less fish landing”. If this goes on, the fishing industry may collapse, he feared.
Drop in fish catch
He gave the example of Gujarat, where fish landing used to be 7 lakh tonnes in 2000-01. It dwindled to 4.2 lakh tonnes in 2007-08. The plight of fishermen in Maharashtra, too, was similar, with fish catch coming down to 3.5 lakh tonnes from the earlier 5 lakh tonnes.
Earlier, fishermen invested a few litres of diesel for each venture into the sea.
Today, they buy hundreds of litres of the fuel for each trip. The operational costs had gone up tremendously, he said. If the fishermen returned empty-handed even after two-three days of fishing, they would suffer huge losses. He described such a situation as “sudden death”. Fish landing was down by up to 50 per cent in the coastal areas he visited, Mr. Debnath added.
100 resorts
He alleged that resorts and tourist facilities, numbering about a hundred, are being planned along the Karnataka coast, between Karwar and Kumta in Uttar Kannada. He said the project, proposed by a leading developer of the region, was “in the pipeline” and its present status was not clear.
Such projects encroached upon the crucial mangroves and ecological hotspots, he said.
Larger projects such as SEZs were displacing people in many coastal States, he said. He regretted that the demands of Karnataka fishermen, for dredging of the channels in fishing harbours for free movement of vessels, had not been met for years. Silt in the channels caused accidents and had taken many lives, he added.
Demands
He demanded adequate and enhanced assistance towards fuel and fishing implements, exemption of road cess on diesel used for fishing, waiver of debts of fishermen and cancellation of permission given to foreign fishing vessels.
Alleging that the proposed creation of coastal management zone (CMZ) would result in a dilution of the coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) and regularisation of violations under CRZ, he said the Centre should come out with a legislation to monitor coastal areas if it was sincere in addressing the issue.