Fishermen on Coastal Zone Management Plan

CHENNAI: As the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNSCZMA) is collecting details of fishermen settlements and fishing infrastructure to be included in the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP), fishermen alleged that the details are collected erroneously, which would affect their livelihood.

K Bharathi, President, South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association, said that the legal battle to restore the right to livelihood of fisherfolk by means of demarcating living and livelihood spaces in CZMPs has been going on for almost 10 years from 2014 to date.

“It is very painful that the government is collecting erroneous data in a hurry to respond to the court’s recent direction. The government should allocate necessary time and devise a proper procedure immediately to collect the accurate data at the district level,” he urged.

He added that GPS data collected for CZMP of Tiruvallur were shared during a stakeholders meeting held on September 11. On field verification of the data of Tiruvallur district’s fish landing centres and schools collected from the Department of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare, the fisherfolk found that the entire data was incorrect except for only a couple of places.

“When the GPS of the fish landing centre used by more than 20 fishing villages including Avurivakkam and Jamilabad was checked after the field verification by fishers, the GPS point of fish landing centre is misrepresented in Periya Mangodu Kuppam, 25 km away from the on-ground location of the Pulicat fish landing centre. Also the data of location of schools is inaccurate. If the data is erroneously recorded in the CZMP as such, the livelihood of the fisherfolk will lose a huge deal of protection under the CRZ notification, ” he explained.

Durai Mahendran of Tamil Nadu Fishermen Association, said that fishing villages have been fishing in Pulicat Lake for several generations using Paadu (designated fishing grounds). “Fishing grounds are protected till date by applying our traditional knowledge. But even after sending the GPS points of fishing grounds to the government, till date they are not recorded in CZMP. It is illogical to look for institutional knowledge to identify fishing grounds rather than fisherfolk’s knowledge who fish daily, ” he added.