Dammed and mined, Narmada River can no longer support her people
For sexagenarian Madoo Bhai, the world has changed beyond recognition since he was a child. He has spent his life in Chikhalda, a small village along the banks of Narmada…
Enormous alien fish spotted in Kerala’s rivers after the 2018 floods
It was September 7, barely a month after the floods of 2018 had wrecked large parts of Kerala. Though life was far from normal in Thrissur's coastal Kodungalloor, 48-year-old Jaison…
Mumbai’s fishers relieved after courts pause the coastal road project
Fifty-two-year-old Moreshwar Namdeo Koli is a fisherman whose family has been fishing in the Arabian sea off the Mumbai coast for the past three generations. His is among the 15,000…
Tharuvaikulam’s palmyra climbers turn sustainable fishers
In the backdrop of the mild sound of waves lashing against their boats and mechanised vessels berthed in Tharuvaikulam wharf, fishers were busy mending their nets in a shed. The…
Kerala’s monsoon trawling ban has become a bone of contention
Monsoon in Kerala is not a happy season for those who love their fish curry and rice. Fish costs two or three times higher due to the annual trawling ban…
India begins regulating its fisheries
Last month, June 2019, the Indian government created its first ministry for fisheries. Although it clubs fishing together, rather oddly, with animal husbandry and dairy, the move fulfills a long-standing…
Vhali Watcher: An app to set whale sharks free
For fisherfolk from Gujarat, finding a whale shark tangled in their nets is an unwelcome sight. They can’t legally harvest the protected species, yet the world’s biggest fish can wreak…
March of industrialisation tramples Kutch’s coastal ecology
“Like fish trapped in a net,” Jam Ismael Ali smiled at the irony of the simile drawn to explain his own situation. One among the few remaining Pagadia fishermen in…
Narmada, the forgotten river, is not on anyone’s agenda
Sanjaybhai Machhi, 33, a resident of Bharuch in Gujarat, was a fisherman until a few years ago. He would earn enough from fishing in the Narmada river, to sustain his…
Making maps to protect fishing villages around Chennai
In a small fishing hamlet in Tamil Nadu, a community leader opens his smartphone and searches his contacts for “Map Saravanan” to make sure the number is saved correctly. Amused…
