8 June 2008
Vandalism Of Tsunami Warning Device In Mid-Sea
Fisheries in India have developed by leaps and bounds. Their growth as an industry is a spectacular feat embracing the entire sub-continent. The history of India’s inshore marine fisheries cultivation dates long back. With its long coastline and extensive riverine and estuarine waters, India has an overwhelming wealth of fish fauna. The importance of fish as food has been understood by men from antiquity. Fishing appeared to him as a simple method than hunting big wild animals where speed and courage were required. The continent shelf bordering the Indian coast has a total area of about 2,59,000 sq.km. This vast area is the home of infinite varieties of marine fishes. Beyond the continental shelf lie the oceanic waters, home of some of the large sharks and rays as well as bony fishes. Thus the total area of fresh water and marine resources of India exceeds several million sq.km. With the introduction of mechanized boats, modern trawlers and gears, Indian marine fisheries trade have expanded so as to vie with the foreign countries and as a valuable means to earn foreign exchange. Over sixty countries depend on India for sea food supply abounding in the comparatively clean and pollution free water stretching over 200,000 sq.km. of its seabed. During the last 35 years, there has been steady growth and expansion to claim an important position in the world fish trade. Today we have over 20,000 mechanised vessels, 1,40,000 traditional crafts with facilities to land in 1,800 centres along its coastline. The old types of nets like otter trawl and beam trawl are replaced by the purseseine net used extensively and more effectively for deep-sea fishery. As the expansion of fishing activities increases year by year, the problem of solving their issues are mounting higher and higher. There are frequent riots between artisanel fishermen and mechanized boat fishermen. The conflicts over both the access to and the use of natural resources are becoming increasingly evident in various regions at seashore. Their conflicts are hard to resolve because they involve a plethora of issues and numerous claimants. The situation is often more complicated as the parties have different socio-cultural backgrounds varying histories of involvement with resource in question and different economic motivations. The East or Coromandel Coast is not known for its rich fishing grounds comparing with the West or Malabar Coast. The Coromandel Coast has 229 marine fishing hamlets each with anywhere between 200 and 1,200 inhabitants. The fishing hamlets of the Coromandel Coast are evenly dispersed along the shoreline with an average of one hamlet for every 1.75 km of beach. The shore is unprotected and surf-beaten. Cyclone storms build up in their long approach over the Bay of Bengal and batters it twice a year on an average endangering fishermen at sea and mercilessly whipping their settlements which huddle at the seaside. Storms bring more than danger. For the sake of fisher-folks safety, the marine scientists in their ingenuity have installed a protective device on the sea. National Institute of Ocean Technology has floated six tsunami data buoys around the Indian coast, four in the Bay of Bengal near Andaman and Nicobar Islands and two in the Arabian Sea near Gujarat. The multi-crore rupees worth warning signal device installed last October have been vandalized by many times. The reported reasons are that the buoys attract fishes and so fishermen hang around and spread their nets. When their nets get entangled in the buoys, they try to save the net and in the process end up destroying the buoy. Crew of international trawlers knows the value of solar panels that supply energy to the buoys and hence steal them. The data buoy has been installed around 500 nautical miles from the coast and take around 60 hrs to reach. It is reported that if any work is to be undertaken, a team of 10 crew members including scientists and technicians should be sent which costs around Rs.7 lakh. It had been reported in the last December that a pirate took place onto a yacht in the Caribbean Sea. Thefts, robberies and assaults have become routine activity in the mid-sea. We can not launch a patrolling boat to guard the lone buoys. Who is to be blamed for marauding these safety devices and how can they be guarded?