It has been over 20 years since fisherman K Bharathi, the president of South Indian Fisherman Welfare Association, lost his sleep over Nochikuppam fish market. “It has always been in the public eye, and we have been constantly fighting for right over our land,” says the 55-year-old. Nochikuppam, says Bharathi, finds mention along with nearby Dooming Kuppam, and Mulli Kuppam in British records, and the Nochikuppam Cooperative Society under the Fisheries Department, was formed as early as 1945.
“In my younger years, boys from the neighbourhood would head to swim in the sea with an anda, a small piece of wood from a catamaran,” he recalls, adding they would pass by women selling fish, although their numbers were much lesser when compared to today. “It is only after 1980 that the market grew,” he says.
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