Fishing banned, fishermen protest loss of income

r Correspondent

Nurpur, January 24

As many as 2,800 fishermen dependent on the Pong wetland are a harried lot after fishing was banned in the lake as they have been left with no means of livelihood.

The fishermen, who are members of 16 fisheries cooperative societies, held a protest at Guglara near the wetland last evening against the government apathy in providing compensation to them for losing their source of livelihood due to the bird flu outbreak.

The district administration banned fishing after the outbreak of avian flu (H5N1) on January 3. But now, they say, the bird flu has largely been contained. Only two dead birds were retrieved from Nagrota Surian range of wildlife yesterday whereas no mortality has been reported in the Dhameta range for the past one week.

After rendering jobless, the fishermen have been demanding compensation in view of restricted fishing in the wetland. Vijay Kumar, Sat Pal, Rajinder, Manoj, Subhash, Rakesh, Inder Pal, Karam Chand, Veer Singh and Ashwani Kumar, who participated in the protest, lamented that after fishing was banned, they were facing immense hardships in sustaining their families.

“Our fishing nets are in the wetland as we could not collect them after one kilometre wetland radius was suddenly declared as a red zone on January 3. All activities, including the movement of human beings and livestock, have been banned in the area to contain the spread of bird flu,” they said.

Praveen Kumar, Kewal Kumar and Ashok, presidents of Khatiyar, Sthana and Sihal fisheries cooperative societies, respectively, said water samples of the wetland had been found to be not contaminated in the test conducted by the Jal Shakti Department and bird flu had been contained.

“The district administration should lift the ban on fishing so that they could resume fish catching in the wetland. The government should consider the demand for compensation to fishermen,” they added. Sat Pal Mehta, Director, Fisheries Department, Bilaspur, said the department had submitted a proposal to the government for grant of compensation to fishermen affected by restrictions imposed on fishing in the Pong wetland.