Perspectives and Challenges of the Kolis and Ramponkars societies in the Western Indian Coast

Abstract

A coast is a dynamic zone-accessible for a limited duration and dependent on the interplay of tides. Coastal zones are sensitive ecological habitats rich in resources and marine biodiversity. It has been a pivotal zone of cultural exchange, many of them resulting in the inception of coastal societies and cities. The building capacity and immense capability of a coast for strategy in protecting a sovereign state, a colonial power or a kingdom in the past has been a subject of historical and colonial maritime literature. Two and a half billion people (40% of the global population) live within a hundred kilometres of the coastline (United Nations 2017). . The linguistic diversity, traditional fishing methods like pole and line, spear fishing and shore seine alongside colonial history presents a magnum diversity of coastal societies in the urban and rural spectrum in India. The coastal zones of the intertidal and subtidal are nursery grounds for most of the predatory species of marine wildlife that are apex in the marine food web like sea turtles, sharks and dolphins whose reducing numbers have a direct impact on the health and functioning of the coast and ocean. Traditional or indigenous coastal societies have interplay between activities in the traditional law of the coastal commons and dynamic shifting land use with the sea. The study of livelihoods from such societies is recorded in colonial and post-independence literature which is limited only to the economic factor of fisheries. The Kolis in Maharashtra and Ramponkars in Goa are two distinct coastal societies that are very poorly documented in India. Neoliberalism has presented a combination of existing and modern options of livelihoods within the Koli and Ramponkar societies like large scale fisheries, tourism and trade. The Kolis and Ramponkars are engaged in small-scale and traditional methods of fishing and tourism. They presently find challenges in sustaining and striving to be resilient in the rising demand for the growth and