THOOTHUKUDI: Fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, headed by Anton Gomez, appealed to the state government to include the coastal villages and settlements that were missed on the recently released drafted Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).
All India fishermen association and Tamil Nadu-Puducherry fishermen federation launched a three-day training session for fishing youths to prepare CRZ maps in Thoothukudi on Thursday. Punnakayal village committee ex-president Edison headed the event in the presence of All India Fishermen Association president Gomez, while Thoothukudi district country and fibre boat fishermen association president SJ Gayes graced the occasion. Over five scientists of the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) imparted the skills to the participants.
On the sidelines of the event, Gomez told TNIE that the draft CZMP map prepared by National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) as per coastal regulation zone notification, 2019, has been erred. It has missed out on at least 400 out of the existing 608 fishing hamlets situated along the Tamil Nadu coast. The buffer zone of the hamlets, marshy lands, sand dunes, fishing areas, and public utilities like fish vending places, and fishnet mending centres, have not been marked properly, he charged.
Anton Gomez said the map should be prepared by the fishing community as they have major stakes. The fisher youths will have more knowledge about the fishing hamlets and the offshore fishing areas, compared to the officers, he added.