Escalation of protests

On February 25, the protests reached a boiling point when authorities, under heavy police security and the imposition of Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), initiated a land survey for the construction of a road connecting to the proposed port. Anticipating resistance, the district administration enforced prohibitory orders from 6 AM to 9 PM, preventing public gatherings. However, this move only fuelled the outrage, with schoolchildren and entire families joining the protests.

Determined to halt the survey work, hundreds of fishermen, including women and elderly members of the community, gathered at the shore in Kasarkod and staged a sit-in protest. The situation took a dramatic turn when over 50 protestors, including several women, waded into the sea, threatening mass suicide. Three women lost consciousness due to heat exhaustion and were rushed to hospitals, with one requiring critical care at Manipal Hospital.

Amidst the chaos, police detained more than a hundred protestors, including key leaders of the fishing community, accusing them of violating prohibitory orders. The arrests further enraged the demonstrators, who warned of escalating their protests unless their fellow protestors were released. In a show of solidarity, a young girl left a note threatening to jump into the sea, holding the state’s Fisheries Minister, Mankal Vaidya, accountable for the distress inflicted upon the fishing community.

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State repression and suppression of dissent

Rather than addressing the genuine grievances of the community, the Karnataka government and district administration have reportedly resorted to heavy-handed measures to quell the protests. The imposition of prohibitory orders was a clear attempt to suppress dissent and create a hostile environment where the voices of the fishermen could be stifled. Instead of engaging in meaningful dialogue, the state deployed a large police force to intimidate the protestors, using arbitrary arrests and excessive force to disperse the gatherings.

The police crackdown was marked by signs of brutality and disregard for basic human rights. Protestors were forcibly dragged away, shoved into police buses, and detained without proper justification. Reports indicate that some were denied access to legal aid and held in custody for extended hours without clear charges. The authorities’ decision to conduct overnight raids in search of protestors who had spoken to the media further demonstrates their intent to silence any opposition to the port project.

The betrayal by Fisheries Minister Mankal Vaidya has only deepened the outrage. Once a vocal opponent of the port under the previous BJP administration, he has now aligned himself with corporate interests, disregarding the very people he once promised to protect. His refusal to intervene meaningfully, despite multiple pleas from the fishing community, has fueled accusations of political opportunism and abandonment of his responsibilities.

Devastating impact on livelihoods

For the 6,000 families that depend on fishing as their primary source of income, the construction of the port represents an existential threat. Fishermen argue that the project will destroy crucial fishing zones, disrupt marine biodiversity, and render many of them jobless. Additionally, the planned four-lane road leading to the port has already displaced local vendors and affected small-scale businesses tied to the dried-fish industry. The community fears that further infrastructure development, including a railway line, could lead to mass displacement of around 600 families, stripping them of their ancestral lands and livelihoods.

The destruction of olive ridley turtle nesting sites is another critical concern. The coast of Kasarkod is an ecologically sensitive area, home to annual nesting of these critically endangered sea turtles. Despite documented evidence of nesting activity, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a fishermen-led petition in 2021, citing a flawed report from the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), which failed to account for the nesting season. Activists argue that the government and the courts have colluded to ignore environmental regulations in favour of corporate interests.

Legal and political setbacks

Efforts to halt the port project through legal channels have met repeated setbacks. In addition to the Karnataka High Court ruling, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) rejected a petition challenging the construction of the four-kilometer-long road on the grounds that it violated Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms. Despite mounting evidence of environmental violations, authorities continue to push ahead with the project, disregarding the legitimate concerns of the local community.

The district administration’s use of excessive force to suppress the protest has further deepened the mistrust between the government and the fishing community. Reports suggest that police conducted overnight raids in search of protestors who had spoken to the media, raising concerns about the state’s attempts to silence dissent. The deployment of heavy security forces, including riot police, to facilitate the survey indicates that the state sees its own citizens as obstacles rather than stakeholders in development.

A community’s unwavering resistance

Despite facing repeated crackdowns, legal hurdles, and betrayals by their own representatives, the fishermen of Honnavar refuse to back down. Their struggle has become emblematic of the broader fight against unchecked industrial expansion at the cost of local communities and ecological sustainability. Fishermen leaders have vowed to continue their resistance until the port project is scrapped entirely.

The protests at Kasarkod are not just about a single infrastructure project; they represent a larger battle against corporate encroachment, environmental destruction, and the marginalisation of traditional coastal communities. The state’s heavy-handed approach, marked by repression and disregard for public sentiment, has only strengthened the resolve of the protestors. As the confrontation between the fisherfolk and the government intensifies, it remains to be seen whether the authorities will acknowledge the voices of the people or continue to prioritise industrial interests at their expense.

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They were hearing a writ petition (PIL) No. 840/2023 PIL-W filed by three fishworker leaders.. The matter involves bilateral relationship and thus invokes the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access, the petitioners counsel argued. He also argued that this is a serious humanitarian issue involving the lives of hundreds and thousands of fishers in India and Pakistan.

The petition made compelling arguments for both Governments of India and Pakistan to follow the 2008 bilateral agreement and to release the fishers who are in each others’ jails, who have completed nationality verification and their due sentence for passports act violation. However, the Hon’ble bench felt that the court was not in a position to interfere with government matters that involved bilateral relations.

Issuing notice to the Government of India would have meant pulling up the government for its violation of the existing agreements and UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea). The petitioners, all fishermen leaders from Gujarat and Maharashtra, including leadership of the National Fishworkers’ Forum, believe that a judicial intervention was most important at this stage to compel the governments to act on the commitments they have made bilaterally.

They also wanted the Hon’ble Supreme Court to make an exceptional intervention to save the lives of fishers at a time when more fishermen are dying in the jails of each other. The latest in the unfortunate list is an Indian fisherman, Jagdish, in his thirties, who died in the Karachi jail on 6th August 2023.

Responding to the apex court’s dismissal of the case, activist and researcher on the issue Vijayan MJ, who is also the Indian Chapter General Secretary of Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy, said: “it is sad that the Hon’ble SC bench has disposed a meritorious petition by fishers seeking livelihood rights, safety and dignity for the community. Bureaucratic red tapism and national egos of India and Pakistan have unfortunately held the innocent fishermen hostage. The fishermen should not be arrested at sea for fishing, it is just wrong. We are saddened but the efforts will continue. We will continue to study the issue in detail in the hope that the judiciary will be available for other justice resources in future. We hope the governments concerned will understand their duties to find a permanent solution to the issue.”

Journalist and long term campaigner on the issue Jatin Desai stated: “the fishermen are victims of hostilities between India and Pakistan. It is most unfortunate that even the Apex Court of India could not understand the rationale of this petition. We were hoping that the judiciary will come forward to make some important steps to fix the executive in taking coercive measures to provide relief to the fishermen of India and Pakistan.”

Campaign efforts by agencies including the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace & Democracy, Fishermen’s unions from India and Pakistan (NFF and PFF), the National Commission of Human Rights Pakistan, made sure that more than 400 fishers were released from Indian and Pakistani jails in the recent months. However close to 200 fishers continue to languish in jails as on date.

One of the petitioners, and National Vice-President of National Fishworkers Forum- India, Ramakrishna Tandel, said that they will consult with their lawyers and make more compelling strategies for future legal interventions. He thanked Adv Kuriakose Varghese and the KMNP lawyers team for their support to the cause of the fishers.

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The post Duty of GOI to ensure that innocent fishermen are not punished: SC appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Hingalgunj (Sunderbans): The Centre’s proposed Sagar Mela project and Blue Revolution tantamounts to victimisation of fisherfolk along the entire Indian coastline, according to the  All India Fishers and Fishery Workers Federation (AIFFWF), which  recently met at a mass convention at Hingalgunj in West Bengal.

At an all –India convention, Debasish Barman, president AIFFWF, demanded that the government should improve social security provisions for fisherfolk and adopt a pisciculture-friendly policy. The convention also proposed scrapping of the Sagarmala project, which, they said, would “spell doom for the entire fishing sector across the country.”

Uma Sarkar, another leader of the organisation, highlighted the importance of protecting the environment and forests along with the depth of various river channels in the Sundarbans area of the state. “Protecting mangroves should be a priority currently,” she said.

“The Centre is harming the ecology of the Sundarbans and hampering fishing in the area by allowing passage to ships. Blue Revolution is meant for big corporate entities. We will not benefit from it,” Barman, who belongs to the Hingalgunj Fisherman Community, told NewsClick on the sidelines of the convention.

“The size of the trawlers fixed by the Central government is meant for big companies. Besides, small-scale fishers cannot bear the huge cost of increasing the size of the present trawlers to 20 feet,” he added.

Barman also said that restricting small-scale fishers to 10 nautical miles from 200 nautical miles is also hampering fishing in the country.

The convention also discussed the issue of big Indonesian trawlers allowed to fish in Indian waters under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement using modern solar searchlights to locate and net huge amounts of fish.

Hariprasad Roy, 51, a poor fisherman hailing from the Hingalgunj area of the Sundarban area, said a couple of years ago he had to sell his own boat and the boat license, as fishing has become unprofitable profession in the Sundarban area where about three fourth of the four million residents are dependent on water to earn their living, he told NewsClick.

Now Hariprasad sells fish in the local Hingalgunj market to earn his living. He has been lucky as he didn’t have to venture out of the state as a migrant labourer, like others in his area have had to do after losing their fishing profession.  Nearly one-third of the able-bodied residents of the Sundarbans have left the state to earn their living.

During a visit to Hingaligunj area, NewsClick observed that the prawn culture on a large scale was being run by big capital-oriented firms, after the inundation of farmlands with saline water. They sourced the land from the erstwhile tillers paying them nominally. After rearing prawns in the farmlands for a couple of years, the land becomes barren and fallow and unfit for any other cultivation. So, the big capital-oriented firms reap huge profits and in the process, the erstwhile tillers turn into paupers, as they lose their lands and its cultivability.

Before 2011, West Bengal topped the country in fish production. At present, it is only producing 4,857 tonnes daily, though the daily requirement of the state is 4,940 tonnes, as per a report tabled in the West Bengal Assembly in 2020. To fulfil the state’s demand, fish is being imported from Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, according to reports.

In 2005, an attempt was made by the Left Front government to start big carp fish cultivation in Nayachar and Captain Bheri region, but all that was “looted” in subsequent years after change of governance in the state, as per the report.

Along with this, the Centre’s ‘Blue Revolution’ project is also hampering both inland and marine fishers in the state, AIFFWF said during the convention. The Blue Revolution focuses mainly on increasing fish production and productivity from aquaculture and fisheries resources – both inland and marine. There are about three lakh fisherfolk in the Sundarbans and another 1.5 million residents who are dependent on fishing for livelihood.

Tuhin Ghosh, a scientist and head of the oceanology department of Jadavpur University, who spoke at the convention, called for an immediate ban on the international sea trade route that passes through the river channels of Sundarbans, which, he said, was causing severe damage to the islands. The convention noted that this had led to artificial high waves, while the oil spills – as residuals in the channels – were affecting the fish population of the entire area.

Speaking at the convention, Pritikumar Roy of Jadavpur University, said now puffed rice mixed with poison was being given as a bait by foreign trawlers who, following the Blue Revolution policy, were entering the Indian waters with a valid licence from the Central government and were making a huge catch from the region, thereby hampering the eco-diversity of the region.

The pertinent question of giving identity cards and licenses to all the fisherfolk of the state also came up in the discussion. 

Barman also demanded a ban on the entry of big capital into the cooperative sector. The convention also sought provision of loans at lower interest rates for the fishers – as were offered during the rule of the Left Front in the state.

Another demand was that inland water bodies be leased only to fishers’ cooperatives. Barman also pointed out that of the 103 ports that dot the Indian coastline, 75 had been privatised already and that was harming the fishing community immensely. In West Bengal, the Digha and Shankarpur fishing ports are being privatised.

Sarkar, central executive member of AIFFWF, appealed to the government to reduce land tax, which, she said, had increased manifold in the past few years.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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The  National Fishworkers Forum has written to Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, asking him to revoke the order which reduces the uniform fishing ban from 61 days to 47 days. The latest order, issued by the Department of Fisheries, will now override the previous order issued on March 20. 

However the National Fishworkers Forum has said that this order must be revoked, and the earlier order where the ban was for 61 days be honoured. They want this for two simple reasons. This is the breeding season and any disturbances in that cycle will harm the fishing industry for years to come, and the seas are too rough and it is dangerous to go out to fish monsoon months.

The fishermen who work on small and medium boats are the worse hit. Almost all of them have been already grounded when the sudden national lockdown was announced due to Coronavirus spread, and have had almost no financial support. Those registered can claim an allowance when the annual ban is in place, but now, if the ban is lifted too early, they will not get that also, explained sources in the NFF.

Fishing is now banned only for 47 days, along India’s East Coast from April 15 to May 31, and along the West Coast from June 15 to July 31. After that the fishermen will have to venture out to earn their wages. 

“The government perhaps wants to avoid paying the allowance. And fishermen will end up risking  their lives by going out into the sea now,” said NFF General Secretary T Peter who is a co signatory on the letter to the Union Minister. The ministry’s revised order has reduced the uniform ban on fishing, by all fishing vessels in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), beyond territorial waters on the East Coast including Andaman, & Nicobar Islands, and West Coast including Lakshadweep Islands. 

The ban aims a “effective management of fishery resources” and ensure “sea safety.” said NFF who on April 2, had written to the the Ministry that they “welcomed the order of a uniform ban on fishing by all fishing vessels in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone and had mentioned that ban has been formulated to help regenerate marine fisheries in the Indian waters where the monsoon season creates a conducive environment for fish spawning.”

Reducing the days when fishing is banned will be counterproductive to the original plan, say NFF. “It is crucial to protect the marine habitat during the reproduction period. Those engaged in sustainable fishing need to be supported,” said Peter. 

The NFF has said that the uniform ban period of 61 days was implemented with consultation between central and state governments in 2015. “This  uniformity came after many decades of conflicts, especially between sectors and between states, and with demands made multiple times by the NFF,” it stated. According to the NFF’s letter to the minister, the current ban period upholds the spirit of a “Supreme Court interim order in the case of ‘Goa Environment Federation versus State of Goa and Others’ in 2005 which imposed a 67 day ban period ‘keeping in view the prime need to preserve the natural fishing resources as also to protect the traditional fishermen.”

T Peter explained that during these months the seas are rough and can put the boats and of the fishermen on board at great risk. The weather remains cloudy and windy even if it is not raining that instant, and the conditions can change suddenly. “There have been many incidents of the loss of boats and lives of fishworkers as a result of inclement weather during the monsoon months. This is the main reason why in addition to the ecological context, the ban also mentions ‘sea safety’,” stated NFF.

The NFF said  that the long ban period is a positive move that helps the small scale fisheries, “as in those 61 days the mechanised boats do not operate, our community is safeguarded from the impacts of the destructive fishing gears. Trawlers can destroy the marine environment and greatly disturb the spawning cycle,” explained T Peter.

Then there is the lesser known fact that it is in these non-fishing months that the seasonal fishworkers return home to their native states. However, due to Covid-19 pandemic, a ban had started suddenly with the lockdown and had estranged workers in Gujarat and Maharashtra on the West coast. “If the ban is ended earlier in the East coast it will further harm the fishworkers and make them vulnerable to exploitation,” said T Peter explaining the NFF’s objections. 

The Eastern Coast too is yet to recover from the damage caused by Cyclone Amphan, and if the ban is shortened it risks the lives of fishworkers who will be forced to head out into the sea. The NFF has demanded that this order be scrapped and that the fishing ban period revert to the standard 61-day period. 

“The lockdown has impacted the fishing sector severely. However, tampering with the ban order will only work in the favour of the mechanised sector and those who own fish farms,” said the NFF leadership.

They have also warned of the “worsened wind and wave conditions, including the increasing regularity of cyclones, during the monsoon period, the reduction of the ban period puts migrant workers on the fishing boats at immense risk.”  In the wake of the Cyclone Amphan the NFF says it  is “highly irresponsible to push workers out to sea to work during this period”. They add that the Monsoon is already in its onset stages “with a depression forming in the Arabian Sea.”

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Newsclick travelled about 1,800 km in Saurashtra and Kutch region and spoke to farmers, fishermen and women to understand issues that affect them and who they willvote for in this Lok Sabha election.

Courtesy: News Click

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