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     Gobar times: Environment for Beginners

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C O V E R  S T O R Y

N A U G H T   I N   N E T
Small fish in a big pond
The plight of fisherfolk does not end on the economic front. While surveys have been conducted and data collected on fish fauna, little effort has been made to gauge the status of these people. For a long while they did not even figure in the census conducted by the government! The impact of this neglect is quite tragic.

Take the example of the 40,000 villagers who live in Kahalgaon, near Bahgalpur in Bihar. The stretch of river they fished in was supposed to belong to two people who claimed to have panidari or rights over the water, just like erstwhile zamindars had rights over land. And they levied taxes. The villagers believed that they were cursed by the gods as they were 'born from the ribs of a dead monster'. In 1982 the cause of the fisher people was taken up by the Jal Shramik Sanga that later grew into the Ganga Mukti Andolan. The people of Kahalgaon had finally found a voice.

Hijacked net gains
But today the old panidars are being replaced by the powerful fish lords who have muscled their way into the big business of fishing. A lot of times they have been help by the policies formulated by the government. In the inland fisheries, the government has been auctioning parts of the man-made reservoirs. The people who win the auctions are those with capital and the traditional fishers become bonded labourers to them. With both marine and inland fisheries, the problem is common - lack of capital. In a bid to improve the lot of the communities, the government has given a boost to fisheries but the profits have been waylaid by the middlemen. Is there a way out of this mess?

Tide over problems
The first and foremost step is to involve the fisher people in the process of development. The one factor that would go a long way to save the poor is to integrate their old and traditional knowledge with new technology.

On the marine front instead of introducing mechanised trawlers, the government could look at upgrading and motorising the country boats used by fisher people.

Existing laws restrict trawlers from fishing too close to the shore. In Goa for example a five km zone of sea is exclusively reserved for the traditional fishers. More such laws could be enacted and implemented stringently in other states.    

Clean-up act
For the riverine fisherfolk reviving polluted rivers and restoring lake ecology are of prime importance. Ponds, lakes, and wetlands have always played a major role in rural economy. One way is to make the communties responsible for this. The Madhya Pradesh government has, for example, given fishing rights in reservoir fisheries to the people who have been displaced by the Tawa dam. At present the yield here is 20 kilogramme for each hectare but with proper management these can yield as much as 50 kilogramme of fish per hectare.

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 If the government authorities and the fisher men and women work hand in hand. the situation can still be salvaged. So can the future of India's fabulously diverse fish fauna.

But a fresh, new way of thinking is the order of the day. It is time to discard the old, recycled ideas. Just like yesterday's left over fish stock.

 

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