The prevailing drought has not only caused worry for farmers and cattle owners but also fishermen have not been spared by nature’s vagaries in Vijayapura district. For decades, the Almatti dam backwaters have been a major source for fishermen to make a living. However, it is now running dry, severely affecting marine life and the fishermen dependent on it. Generally, people do not prefer to eat fish during summer, thus the cost of it declines; but this time, the cost has spun around owing to dearth of fish due to sharp depletion of water-level, said Keshav Uppaladinni, a fisherman. He said that the fishermen use around a 30-km radius of the backwaters in about six villages to catch fish using over a thousand coracles. The fishermen normally catch Katla, Kipli, Muchali, Bali, Ruhu and Gungri. During the season, we catch around 10 quintals of fish and transport it to Solapur, Hyderabad and also sell it in the local market. But following the drought, we have been catching hardly a quintal of fish everyday for the last about two months. Due to dearth of fish, the cost has increased this year, another fisherman Siddalinga Adavi said. The fishermen alleged that the Department of Fisheries too has not been releasing adequate seedlings into the backwaters due to which production has been adversely affected. The impact of drought could be easily gauged at the fish market near Almatti dam where most of the fish sold are caught in ponds and not the river. The vendors said that as fish from the river has become scarce, fishermen are bringing fish from ponds and small lakes to sell here.
2016, The Hindu