“For the first time ever,” says Dr Dilip Kumar, Director of the Central Institute of Fisheries Education, “our scientific expertise in fish culture has been successfully applied by a community of people in their own waters, to steer towards a sustainable livelihood.”
Between 1995 and 2000, Anand Kapoor, co-founder of a voluntary organisation, the Shashwat Trust, was involved in the rehabilitation of 152 villages displaced by the Bargi Dam near Jabalpur. He watched a fishing project develop there. Soon after, when the Dimbhe Dam in Anand’s own neighbourhood flooded the agricultural lands of 24 villages, displacing 1,253 families Kapoor and Buddhaji Damse of the Shashwat Trust, began to research and confer with the locals about starting a fishery.
The Dimbhe Dam, 92 km from Pune, fords the Ghod River that begins in the remote, Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sahyadri hills. Nineteen dam-displaced villages, are situated on the fringes of the reservoir that has an average fishing area of 1,278 hectares.
“Earlier, there were no boats and a handful of people were catching fish on rubber tubes or fishing in the streams,” says Buddhaji Damse, himself a tribal. “There was no proper stocking of fish seed. Explosives and poisonous substances were being used for fishing.” As a child, he would accompany his father carrying fish from Manikdoh Dam (in Junnar) to sell in various villages. He recalls the exploitation of the tribal fisherfolk at the hands of contractors. “In 2002, at our behest, boat-builders who had worked in the Bargi dam-affected areas, came to Dimbhe dam and taught the locals how to build their first three boats.”
The then-Divisional Commissioner of Pune district, Prabhakar Karandikar decided to make a development plan for the region. He roped in State tribal and fisheries departments, as well as the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai. The CIFE routinely tests and prepares a report on the water quality and fish-breeding potential of newly constructed reservoirs in India. The report is then filed and forgotten. But not in this case.
The government, NGO and community put together schemes under which the families living by the dam waters were supported for fish seed stocking, more boats and nets. Swiss Aid and the Rotary Club of Pune, Tilak Road, also helped. The boats were built by the people, who chipped in with wood and their labour.
Kapoor, an IIT Kharagpur engineer who has steered this project, smiles, “Sometimes you have officials who want to do good work. But it all comes together when the local people maintain unity. We believe the locals have the first right to local natural resources, and their involvement in its development is a must.”
The right to fish in the Dimbhe Dam came after a struggle. In 2005, Kusum Karnik, co-founder of Shashwat Trust, led an agitation to help the community claim this right to the fishing lease that had been handed to a politician from another tehsil. The reservoir soon came under the control of the local tribals.
Fishing at the dam today is community-run and scientific. Families from 19 villages run the Dimbhe Tribal Co-operative Fishing Society that harvests upto 27 tonnes of fish per year. And this in a reservoir whose net aquatic productivity the CIFE had termed low in their initial reports.
Along with CIFE, the locals sowed Dhencha, a green manure crop, in fields that go underwater at full reservoir level. The crop grew and increased the total nitrogen, organic matter content of the soil in which it was planted, thus increasing the yield of the subsequent crop. It also provided the wide-mouthed Catla and Rohu fish with food, upping general aquatic productivity. Guided by the CIFE, the tribals use state-of-the art Cage Culture, where fish fingerlings are grown in floating cages. They are then released into the open waters of the reservoir, increasing their chances of survival to 90 per cent.
The community monitors net size and fish catch, measuring and weighing regularly, and reporting back to CIFE. The Dimbhe reservoir recently yielded fish five kilos heavy!
The non-fishing monsoon months fall hard on villagers, especially the landless Kathkari and Thakar. On CIFE’s advice, they have begun to rear ornamental fish. With a view to empower the women of the community, 20 women have been trained in the upkeep of these fish.
“Last year, three families earned upto Rs 1,500 per month,” Damse explains patiently, proudly. “Many more earned Rs 800 to 900. Initially the government rules allowed just one member per family to officially be part of the Fish Co-operative. Now one more per family can join. So the women, who were working anyway, are officially registering as members. They come to the meetings and participate actively.
“The community has built 138 flat-bottomed wooden boats, owns about 2,000 kg of nets, and has the use of a fibre-glass motorboat, provided by Shashwat Trust to ply the catch across the reservoir. Earlier the Kathkari tribals used to drink alcohol instead of attending meetings. But now they see the value of getting organised. Shashwat Trust runs balwadis and schools for the Kathkari children, first-generation learners, so they may eventually understand their rights.” With a little help from their friends.
— Chatura Rao is a children’s writer and freelance journalist based in Mumbai. chaturarao@gmail.com
