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Journalism of Courage
Even as the Orissa Assembly awaits the introduction of the Chilika Fishery Regulation Bill, Asia’s largest brackish water lagoon is waging a battle against illegal fishing that is threatening its fragile ecosystem. The controversy over a fishery in Chilika is not new, but it seems the state administration has turned a blind eye to the consequences.
Monitoring carried out here has made clear how the wetland is facing siltation, obstruction of migratory routes of aquatic species and poaching of their young ones. A status report on similar ecological aspects was placed before a Select Committee on Chilika by the Chilika Development Authority on Saturday.
The most serious issue the lake is facing is large-scale poaching which has affected as many as 30 aquatic species as their juveniles have been killed. The poachers generally collect tiger-prawn juveniles. Any other species are rejected and generally thrown outside the lagoon.
For Chilika, ecological degradation in the 1980s, and siltation was identified as the major threat. An estimate says about 0.365 million tones of silt makes its way into the lake every year through 52 rivers and rivulets. However, a major portion of it is flushed out to the sea and that is the reason Chilika has survived so long. After the new mouth was opened in 1999, a marked improvement was seen in the flushing out of the sediments.
But now, fixed nets used as traps and barricades for unauthorised shrimp culture (gheries) prevent free flow of sediments while accelerating the same at the shore as well as the channels. The trend, experts feel, needs to be arrested by stopping on shrimp culture.
Of late, the ecologically sensitive shoreline and creeks of the lagoon are being disturbed by the unauthorised fishery in the lagoon. Generally highly productive in terms of sea-grass and micro-algae on which economic species grow, the creeks and shoreline are being affected by the gheries and shrimp culture which take place along it. This also is another reason for a fall in the productivity level of the lagoon.
Prior to the opening of the new mouth, Chilika witnessed a sharp decline in fish, crab and prawn production due to an obstruction of migratory routes of the species. Now, the productivity has jumped many times but the story is a little different. The environment monitoring study says use of dragnets by villagers in the mouth zone of the lagoon during high tide and low tide is obstructing the migration of economic species. Some of the villagers have leased out the mouth zones to outside operators for fishing. This has affected recruitment of the economic species into the lagoon.
