Field exchange visit: Andaman islands to Ganjam mainland by Anand Rao Dakshin gave me the opportunity to do a one month field exchange visit from Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) to Ganjam, Odisha from 15th August to 15th September 2022. Ganjam is a coastal district of Odisha, located at the Andhra-Odisha border. This makes it…
Who is a fisherman? The question of identity by Ithihaas R I have had the opportunity to interact with many fascinating people as part of the recently launched Palk Bay initiative in the thematic area of livelihoods. This question posed in the title of this article came from one such person – Palsamy, the President…
By E. Haripriya and Meghana Teerthala | After an intensive and insightful fieldwork at Mangalore, we set sail to Palk Bay this September to initiate reduction fisheries work in Tamil Nadu. Palk Bay is a shallow stretch of sea between India and Sri Lanka with a rich seagrass ecosystem. Besides, it is also known for its geopolitical intricacies pertaining to the fisheries sector.
We started with a rapid two-week scoping exercise covering 8 fish landing centres along Palk Bay, from Mallipattinam in the north to Rameshwaram in the south.
By Satya Sainath | As part of our ongoing project on Migration and Infrastructures of Resilience of Small Scale Fishers’, we co-created Community-Databases of Migrant Fishers (CDMF) in select villages of two districts – Ganjam, Odisha, and Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. CDMF provides vital information to gram panchayats to reach migrant workers in case of under emergencies.
We are in the process of piloting an Interactive-Voice Response (IVR) system to reach migrant fishers in these two sites. Through this IVR initiative, vital information on entitlements, welfare schemes of the state governments, health and safety information on migrant fishers and the latest judicial rulings pertaining to their rights can be shared. Read more.
By Devathi Parashuram and Shivangi Pant | There have been a few changes at Current Conservation since our last newsletter update. Greta Ann Sam has been Managing Editor since April. In May, we welcomed Shivangi Pant on board, as the new Managing Editor (Art & Design). We have since published (and printed) two issues: 16.1 and the recent marine-themed 16.2. The latter has stories that span oceans, highlighting the ecology of killer whales, the need to protect swimways, the history of ambergris (whale vomit), and the use of bioacoustics in marine research, amongst other things. Read more.
By Abhilasha Sharma | After a thorough planning and ideation phase, our project on reduction fisheries has now taken off in full swing! Reduction fisheries refer to the conversion or reduction of fish caught from the oceans into products like fish meal and fish oil (FMFO) to make feed for industries like poultry and aquaculture. Converting large volumes of fish catch into FMFO rather than using it for direct human consumption can have multiple implications, not only for ecology, but also for the nutritional security and well-being of fishing communities. However, a lack of adequate information on the sector makes it difficult to address these implications. In its initial phase, this project, in collaboration with WWF-India, seeks to develop a broad understanding of the reduction fisheries sector in India.
“I met Saw Thesorow in 2010, when I joined the leatherback monitoring camps in Little Andaman, where we spent 3-4 months on the remote beaches of South and West bay cut off from the outside world. Thesorow’s familiarity with the work and the place, and his quick thinking were always something we could rely on. He always trusted his instincts and had a very balanced approach to problem-solving. Through the years my relationship with him has evolved from being a field assistant, a friend, to a brother.” – Adhith Swaminathan, Base Manager, ANET
My Experiences in the Water by Elwin Varughese I always loved being in water. During my childhood, it was a tradition for my family to go to the beach or swimming pool every month. But the thing was that I just liked being in the water, I just never knew swimming. Both my father and…
By Pradeep Elangovan | The black and white image is still floating in my mind. Whether it had colour or not, I am not able to clearly remember. The girl child in this image, with tears welling up in her eyes, watching her father’s corpse lying beside the glass dead body freezer box, still haunts me. Her father worked as a manual scavenger. The photo of the wailing woman kissing her husband’s corpse has a similar effect on me. Those two moments were given a voice by photographer Palani Kumar. Palani constantly keeps rotating his camera’s eye searching for millions of yet unspoken marginalized people and objects, presenting their hidden worlds and dreams to the world.