Conservation of Environment and Protection of Marginalized Fishing Communities of Lake Chilika in Orissa, India

Abstract

Situated in the coastal belt of Orissa in India, Lake Chilika has been designated under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International importance (IUCN) especially as water fowl Habitat (Iran, 1981). But, during the last few years the Lake has developed serious environmental problems so much so that the Bureau of Ramsar convention has placed it on its red list. Among those problems, the siltation at the Mugger Mukh (one of the openings of the Lake to the sea) and consequent reduction in tidal waves, decrease in the depth of water level, decreasing salinity, shrinkage of Lake area, deterioration of the condition of the Nalabana Bird Sanctuary situated in the Lake have been cited as the major ones. While various natural factors have been attributed to such an environmental degradation, an artificial factor i.e. shrimp aquaculture practiced by a few economic elites of the state and also a group of businessmen has been cited as a potential cause. The economically marginalized and environmentally conscious fishing community living near the Lake have thus started a very powerful movement supported by various other sections of the state. Since the Lake ecology and sustainability of the marginalized fishing masses are interrelated in this case, the paper attempts to focus on the artificial problem that has substantially contributed to the environmental degradation and analyze the socioeconomic problems that have evolved in a sociological context.

Positive Interactions Between Irrawaddy Dolphins and Artisanal Fishers in the Chilika Lagoon of Eastern India are Driven by Ecology, Socioeconomics, and Culture

“…Villagers in China with more traditional practices were linked to more positive conservation attitudes in comparison with villages that used fewer traditional practices (Shen et al 2012). The community identity of traditional fishers at Chilika is strongly associated with the lagoon and goes back several generations (Pattanaik 2007). Thus, fisher group strongly influenced attitudes towards dolphins in responses to closed-ended questions.…”

“…''Traditional'' fishers were defined as those whose traditional livelihood was fishing, whose families had been extracting resources from the lagoon for more than two generations, and who traditionally had tenure rights to extract resources from specific areas of the lagoon surrounding their villages (Sekhar 2004;Pattanaik 2007;Nayak and Berkes 2010). ''Non-traditional'' fishers were new entrants, who traditionally had other livelihoods, whose families had entered the fishery for less than two generations, and did not have traditional tenure rights to extract resources from the lagoon (Sekhar 2004;Pattanaik 2007;Nayak and Berkes 2010). Traditional and non-traditional villagers were therefore distinct in terms of their background, identity, heritage, community, and experience of fishing in the lagoon, alongside dolphins.…”

Assessing wetland ecosystem services and poverty interlinkages: a general framework and case study

“…The economic return to be generated by prawn aquaculture led to a massive influx of individuals from the farming communities into this fishery, and even attracted the interest of investors from outside the basin (Pattanaik 2008). Due to the low agricultural productivity of soils in the coastal tracts, many individuals from the farming communities also took up fishing as a livelihood strategy (Samal 2002).…”

Commonisation and decommonisation: Understanding the processes of change in the Chilika Lagoon, India

“…The Chilika Lagoon, which was a natural area for tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), caught on to the trend in the early 1980s, as investors and policy makers found it highly suitable for intensive prawn aquaculture. As the international price of tiger prawns spiralled upwards, the stakes for the non-fi shers became formidable (Pattnaik 2007).…”