Fishermen of Ibrahimbagh left high and dry

Fishermen of Ibrahimbagh left high and dry
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Highlights

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime so goes the saying. The State government supplied 60,000 fishing seeds to the fishermen of Ibrahimbagh Lake but failed to curb pollution and as a result the fishing seeds have been of no use.

Hyderabad: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime so goes the saying. The State government supplied 60,000 fishing seeds to the fishermen of Ibrahimbagh Lake but failed to curb pollution and as a result the fishing seeds have been of no use.

There are six lakes in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts namely Manikonda, Pupalguda, Narsingi , Khajaguda, Lingampally and Ibrahimbagh Lake. The government supplied seeds to the fishermen of Ibrahimbagh Lake which is spread over 1.8 sq km but not a single fisherman is able to eke out a living as the water is unfit for breeding.

Ramulu, a fisherman says that his forefathers used to fish at the lake and locals say that many depended on fishing but today the state of affairs is that the fishing community is left with no option but to look elsewhere for a living. For optimists like Ramulu, life is like hanging on to a last thread. Not so long ago, fishermen would take back Rs 2,000- Rs 2,500 per week at the fish market but today it is a far call away. Thanks to the lack of foresight by the powers that be, over 200 families in the Greater Hyderabad area are left in the lurch.

Deputy Director of Fisheries Department Murali Krishna said, “We are doing our best to provide better income to the fishermen. Few years ago there was no subsidy for seeds, now we are providing the seeds for better subsidy.” He repeatedly skipped answering about cleanliness of the fishing lakes in the city.

Fishermen rue that the department cannot just wash their hands off by supplying seeds. There should first draw a plan to clean all the lakes and stop industrial effluents into the lakes. Lakshman, president, Fishermen Co-operative Society says, “Besides supplying seeds, government should also take steps to clean the aquatic weed and other pollutants in the lake.” Adding further, the secretary of the society Pusa Madan says, “So much is being spoken on Swaatch Bharat. All rhetoric should be translated into action, lest the fishing community is wiped out.”

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