The publication is an important outputs of regional activity under the regional initiative on sustainable intensification of aquaculture for blue growth in Asia-Pacific. This publication is a very important information and knowledge product on sustainable intensification of aquaculture. The publication will greatly raise the awareness of stakeholders to existing good …
PRAWNS are considered a delicacy in most parts of the world, but not everyone can enjoy eating them for they can cause severe allergic reactions -- pain in the abdomen, nausea, diarrhoea, hives, choking and even death. But now, P V Subba Rao and his colleagues at the Indian Institute …
KERALA'S coastal waters have become a battleground, putting traditional fisherfolk, who don't have an alternative vocation, against operators of mechanical monsters looking for quick profits from the sea. Linked closely with the dispute is the fate of the marine ecosystem. Conflicts between traditional and mechanised fisherfolk take place all along …
Chief minister Biju Patnaik's attempt to wriggle off the Chilika prawn project hook has left him impaled even more firmly. The onus of proving the Chilika Aquatic Farm Ltd (CAFL) project is environmentally safe has fallen on his government following a state high court order that Orissa officials must conduct …
THE TREMENDOUS surge in prawn farming, fueled by the high prices they fetch abroad, is threatening ecological disaster for the Sundarbans, a fragile area of mangrove swamps in West Bengal. Several major business houses, including the Tatas, ITC, Britannia and Hindustan Lever have been allowed to operate hatcheries. The local …
FISHERFOLK get to see little of the fabulous profits prawns fetch exporters. Between harvesting and exporting, the prawns multiply money 80 times over. Prawn seedlings are sold to middlemen at Rs 20 to Rs 50 a kg in summer -- when the seedlings are abundant -- and Rs 150 to …
TIGER prawn collectors face an enemy called the kamot, a small species of shark that infests the saline waters of the Sundarbans. Kamots have sharp teeth and they can slice off a limb. In 1992, the health department of Bangabella recorded 87 kamot attacks, most of them fatal. One of …
UNTIL about five years ago, Gambhari was a sleepy island hamlet in Chilika lake and senior Puri district administration officials were barely aware of it. So were Balbhadrapur, Alupatanam, Satapada, Panaspada and many more. All of them were merely names in the district"s revenue records. But today these villages are …
PERHAPS no other enterprise of the staid house of Tatas has drawn as much flak from environmental and social activists as its Rs 20 crore Chilika Aquatic Farms Ltd. Many are puzzled why a business group that has steadfastly kept aloof from environmental controversies, should go to such lengths to …
WHILE international agencies and the Union government have shown much concern for the protection and sustainable management of Chilika, the Orissa government's response has been surprisingly lacklustre. It was at the 1971 convention on wetlands, held at Ramsar in Iran, that attention was drawn to protection of the lake. India …
THE CHINGUDI (prawn) mania may have engulfed Chilika and its catchments only recently, but state government records show the fish trade started in the 1930s and fish from the lake was exported as far as Calcutta during the World War II. The first known attempt at brackish-water culture was made …
UNION environment minister Kamal Nath's order of July 30 -which has yet to reach the Orissa government -to stop work on the Chilika Aquatic Farms project till an independent consultant assessed its likely environmental impact may have, at best, bought some time for him. Orissa chief minister Biju Patnaik and …
EVERYONE recognises the importance of forests. We have over the years set up several structures and evolved policies to try and conserve them. How effective these are is, of course, another question. Wetlands, on the other hand, remain an area of darkness. And the recent imbroglio over the Chilika lake …
AND NOW, it's the turn of the Orissa Maritime and Chilka Area Development Authority (OMCAD). OMCAD has stepped into the Chilka leasing controversy with an advertisement for leasing three plots around the Chilka lake for prawn culture units. While those fighting against the Tata project have been quick to take …
