NAGAPATTINAM: As the annual fishing ban gets near, the desperation for fishers to exploit fish using banned nets is becoming ever more evident. The clash broke out between Keechankuppam fishers and Vellapallam fishers around 3 pm on Tuesday.
The simmering tension between fishing groups in Nagapattinam district erupted in clashes mid-sea on Tuesday leaving at least seven persons injured. Four fibreglass boat fishers were allegedly missing.
Two fibreglass boats were damaged, seven fishermen injured, and four allegedly were abducted in a mechanised boat in a conflict between the mechanised boat from Keechankuppam, and fibreglass boat fishers from Vellapallam allegedly over the use of purse seine fishing.“Our men were fishing a few nautical miles from Vellapallam. A mechanised boat from Keechankuppam was using purse seine in our waters. They were pulling everything from the waters adjacent to us. Our men objected. They rammed their mechanised boat at us, and sank our boats,” said R Steepan Raj, a fisher, from Vellapallam.
A police official said, “We are uncertain of how the crash happened, but we have taken the complaints of Vellapallam fishers, as six fishers were injured and four are missing.”N Prasanth (19), S Ananthavelu (23), D Vijay (26), S Muthuvelu s (50), S Dinesh s (25) A Muruganantham (25) fell into the sea but were pulled into the boats by their colleagues.
Fishermen in Vellapallam, who primarily are into fibreglass boat fishing, had agreed in a panchayat-level meeting to allow purse seine fishing of mechanised boats as the villages like Keechankuppam stated that they have invested in buying those nets – thus both ignoring that the net was completely banned by the government. Vellapallam And Vedaranyam Taluk Villages to at least shorten the length of the kilometres-long purse seine nets.
However, Vellapallam fishers were treated to the sight of purse seine nets and sweeping the entire waters a few nautical miles away from the shore on Tuesday afternoon. Abuses flew from both sides. The irked Keechankuppam fishers allegedly chased and rammed their mechanised boat into a couple of fibreglass boats of Vellapallam. The drowned boats remained capsized in the waters at the time of this report.
The Vellapallam fishers allege that Keechankuppam fishers pulled four of their men namely P Pugazh, N Senthil, K Kavi and T Jayasuriya, who were struggling in the waters into their mechanised boat, only to hand them a sound thrashing on board. They were later released after elders from Akkaraipettai chief panchayat and Keechankuppam village have gone to the sea to convince them to release them and not to contradict more legal action.
The six injured fishers were rushed to Nagapattinam Government General Hospital for treatment. A fisher named Ajith from Akkaraipettai was also admitted later. Meanwhile, roadblocks and protests broke out near Vellapallam near Vedaranyam by the outraged Vellapallam fishers on Tuesday evening.
