By Manoj Kar
Kendrapara, Oct 16: Each time it rains in torrents and weather turns stormy, Jamini Saha(42) cries inconsolably. Jamini, mother of five nubile girls had lost her husband sometime back. The stormy weather had triggered cyclonic panic in the seaside Kharinasi village and the day turned fateful for the seven-member family with its sole breadwinner, Gouranga Saha committing suicide. The family members retrieved the motionless body lying on the backyard with unplugged pesticide bottle. The blow was staggering for them to withstand.

With a fortnight left for November 1 clamping of prohibition on marine fishing, the traditional marine fishermen in these parts of Odisha are haunted by nightmares of the past. As government would carry out its annual ritual of stopping fishing activity to ensure undisturbed breeding of Olive Ridley Turtles, the plight of thousands of marine fishermen families remains unsolved.

Gouranga was the proud owner of four fishing vessels earning enough to provide soothing comfort for his wife and children. Prohibition on fishing to protect the Olive Ridley turtles turned the tide against majority of marine fishermen in this part.

Gouranga failed to cope with the aftershocks of fishing-ban and thought it better to leave the world for good than bear the stigma of insolvent person. He consumed poison leaving behind a trail of plight for the family. The spate of suicides that begun with Saha bears ample testimony to the ravaged marine fishing regulated economy in these coastal villages.

The excruciating debt burden has prompted the marine fishermen like Bidyadhar Ram(42), Gouranga Saha(53), both from Kharinasi, Rahul Vaishya(52) and Hirendra Haldar(46), both from Ramnagar, and Rameya Mandal to end their life, according to secretary, Orissa Traditional fishermen's association, Narayan Haldar.

“It's a grim struggle for bread and butter for most of the bereaved family members. With sole earning member dying young, once happy & jolly people have virtually come to the streets,” felt Haldar, who also holds the post Sarpanch Kharinasi Gram Panchayat.

“It really pains me to sight the abysmal poverty in which the once prosperous fishermen are presently finding themselves. Nature had endowed them with immense marine fishing resources. They had taken to the hazardous profession and earned enough for decent living by local standard. But all this is now a thing of past. It seems the present state of affairs is poor shadow of buoyant fishing economy in not so distant past,” he observed.

Caught in vicious cycle of debt, marine fishermen from seaside villages have begun signing suicide pact bringing to sharp focus the dwindling livelihood stakes in fisheries-regulated coastal villages in coastal Odisha.

Shattered by loss of avocation, at least six marine fishermen from coastal Mahakalpada tehsil have ended their life in past years.

The fisheries-regulated economy is in doldrums in these coastal patches following the fishing ban and the recent spate of suicide insinuates the crux of the problem. Mounting burden of loan has added to the misery with drastic depletion of income generation avenues.

All PRI representatives and fishermen cooperative bodies located in these parts described the prohibition as ‘anti-people' and ‘draconian'.

As is the practice, the state government in a bid to curb high mortality of these marine species prohibits fishing activity within a seaward radius of 20 km from Gahirmatha marine sanctuary from November 1 in accordance with Sections 2, 7 & 4 of Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA), 1982.

The deceased fishermen like hundreds of their fraternity had borrowed heavily to procure boats and fishing implements. The borrowing was made either from the moneylenders or cooperative societies. With over seven months ban on fishing, there was loss of avocation and debt burden was too much for them to bear with. They drove them to commit suicide leaving the bereaved families to the brink of starvation, Haldar narrated.

The conservation of endangered Ridleys is of paramount importance but it should not be at the cost of livelihood of thousands of fishermen, who cause no harm to these species, he said.

Most traditional fishermen belong to lower socio-economic background, so they use mechanized boats whose capacity is quite low. They fish in 5 km off sea coast with their indigenous “kani' net in which turtles never get entangled and they do not venture into deep sea like deep-sea trawlers. The use of mono-filament nets by the deep sea vessels lead the breeding species to be entangled and killed in the process. The monofilament and other costlier and improvised nets that are used by the trawl operators are beyond the reach of these fishermen, he maintained.

It is apparently illogical and arbitrary to deny the fishing rights to these impoverished fishermen. Not a single temporary fishing permit was issued till date from the state fisheries department despite clear-cut instructions from central empowered committee (CEC), constituted by the Supreme Court, he charged.

It has become fashionable now-a-days to talk of turtle conservation, but that should not be the cost of these starving traditional fishermen. Unless the prohibition is relaxed, it would spell disaster, he said predicting more suicidal death of impoverished fishermen from this coastal region.

The fisheries personnel based at Kujang fisheries assistant directorate office preferred to maintain stoic silence on the depleting livelihood stakes of marine fishermen. “We are guided by the legal provisions. We are duty bound to effectively implement the prohibition on fishing. The plight of fishermen community has been brought to our notice. The state government has been duly apprised of the problem”.

Even as the National Human Rights Commission has taken note of spate of fishermen suicides asking the local administration to submit an action-taken report on measures to ameliorate the community plight, the ground reality on the marine fisheries sector presents an exceedingly bleak scenario.

If Haldar is to be believed, six more marine fishermen hit by mounting debt burden have turned psychiatric.

Gouranga Saha owned five gill-netters and earned not less than Rs 30,000 a month. He had to dispose off the boats one by one once the ban was strictly implemented since 2003. He had borrowed heavily from private moneylenders and fish merchants in Paradip. The monthly income began sliding to few thousands bringing to the brink of insolvency. Ultimately he committed suicide in the later half of 2005.

Haldar, who hails from Kharinasi village, went on to the similar instance of an affluent fishermen reduced to pauper in no time. Budhananda Saraswati is now mentally derailed. Sudden loss of daily income shattered him. He was the owner of five mechanized fishing vessels. Now he possesses none. Three were sold at throw away price while the rest are turned defunct following non-maintenance.

The predominantly fishermen inhabited villages in this part of the state are Kharinasi, Batighar, Kajalapatia, Badatubi, Sanatubi, Ramnagar, Bajrabahakud, Jamboo, Baulokani, Hariananka, Suniti, Tantiapala, Rajnagar, Keredagada, Talchua, Rangani, Iswarpur, Dangmal, Gupti, Rajrajeswarpur, Debendranarayanpur.

Over 20,000 villagers eke out their living by marine fishing. Over 35,000 other residents generate regular income from fisheries sector.

The marine fisheries sector is now completely in doldrums, said Haldar. After seven and half months of prohibition, the fishermen are left with hardly 135 days to fish in troubled seawaters.

The scenario is going from bad to worse. The fish produce has reached all time low. The prosperous Kharinasi fishing village was having monthly fish produce turnover of more than ten tones. Now it has dipped down to two tones a month. This region was boasting of over 2,500 medium range fishing vessels owned by traditional marine fishermen. But it has come down to 1,800 in a span of two years. Either these have been seized by the state forest department or lying in dysfunctional state. Those earning livelihood by boat making and repair besides net making are also adversely affected. Not surprisingly the dry fish produce has drastically come down. These places were major dry fish producing centers with the product mostly making its way to Kolkata and country's north east.

Haldar felt that unless the duration of the ban is brought down and the fishermen are conferred at least temporary permit, the marine fishing sector can not be revived from doldrums.

As per candid admission of Kujang Marine Fisheries wing of state fisheries directorate, 6,900 active of full time fishermen in the vicinity of fishing-prohibited area were affected last season. They had to lose Rs 18.63 crore by way of income during the active ban period from November 1 to May 31. Besides 16,100 part time fishermen lost avocation to the tune of Rs 21.74 crore.

A proposal suggesting to compensate at least 60 percent of daily income of full time and part time fishermen during the ban period has been sent to the government to accord budgetary sanction. It would act as a subsistence allowance towards the hard-pressed fishermen to meet with their emergency expenses, informed the Kujang Assistant directorate of fisheries sources.