In a small room of his house in Indian-administered Kashmir, 54-year-old Ali Mohammad Dar is assembling his fishing equipment – a net, a Panzar (a kind of long thin rod), a fishing basket, and a plastic bucket – to go fishing and earn his livelihood.
He placed all these items in his fishing boat and set sail for fishing in Dal Lake, the second largest lake and a major tourist attraction in the region, which is situated 9.6 kilometers (6 miles) away from the capital city Srinagar.
Dar learned the art of fishing from his grandfather and has been in this business since he was a young boy.
In those early years of his life, he would accompany his grandfather Mohammad Subhaan Dar to the Dal Lake.
“Fish would outnumber everything in those days. Even if one put his hand directly in the water, he would have got a handful of fish.”
“But today even spending hours, the catch is very minimum,” Dar said.
Dar explained that fish reduction has drastically impacted the fishing community of Kashmir where many families have relocated to other places to earn their living.
Around 700-800 members of the community still live around the peripheries of the lake which once had over 10,000 members of the community living there.
“I think over 50% of people of our community have left this occupation and taken up other jobs. When there is no fish, how will you feed your family,” Dar said.
The lake has lost nearly about 25% of its area in the last 157 years due to unregulated changes in land use and land cover, according to a research study.
Many research studies also point out that excessive pollution, untreated sewerage, open drains, and usage of excessive fertilizers and pesticides have impacted the breeding ground of the fish which in turn has killed many local fish species.