Looking at the poor catch of the day, U.A. Ananthan, a fisherman of Venkitangu, a village on the banks of the Chettuva estuary, sighed deeply. The declining fish catch from the estuary, along the west coast of Kerala, has triggered a wave of worry amongst the fisher families living along its shore.
“The backwaters never used to disappoint us like this earlier,” says Ananthan, president of the Inland Fishworkers Welfare Society, Venkitangu, who has been fishing on the stretch from the Enamavu regulator to the Chettuva estuary for more than 25 years. Hundreds of families in Venkitangu, Mullassery, Manalur, and Engandiyur, who depend solely on fishing for their living, echo a similar lament. “There are no fish in the canal. Many times, we return almost empty-handed.”
