Odisha government has decided to start a fiscal incentive scheme to compensate for the loss of livelihood of fishermen due to periodic prohibition on marine fishing. Sea-going fishermen suffer badly following ban on fishing activities during olive ridley sea turtles’ nesting season and breeding period of sea fish. Fishing activities come to a grinding halt from November 1 to June 15 as the ban remains in force to protect turtles and breeding fish. While a seven-month ban is clamped in Gahirmatha marine sanctuary from November 1, a two-month prohibition on marine fishing is enforced every year from April 15 throughout the 480 KM long sea coast. A total of 2,000 marine fishermen from Kendrapara, Ganjam and Puri districts who are affected due to the fishing ban are to be brought under fiscal incentives from 2016-17 fiscal, Deputy Director, Marine Fisheries, Basant Kumsar Das said.
2016, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.