The High Court of Karnataka has overturned an order by the director of fisheries preventing fishing in Mallaghatta Ammanikere, the largest lake in Tumakuru. The court has also directed the authorities to renew the licence of the cooperative of the local fishermen who were conducting fishing activities in the lake. The department’s order came after a recommendation by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries on claims that fishing activities are resulting in pollution of the lake, the waters of which are used for drinking purposes. The HC in its order said that the department should not have taken the unilateral decision to ban fishing. Meenugaarara Sahakara Sangha Niyamitha is a cooperative society of local fishermen involved in fishing in the lake. In 2014, the government had brought all internal water resources under the fishing policy to enable fishing. Mallaghatta was one of those lakes given out on fishing lease under the policy. The fishermen’s cooperative obtained the lease after winning the tender for the period 201419. On February 29, 2016 however, the lease was cancelled by the department. The cooperative approached the HC against this. They claimed that they had invested money in releasing young fish in the lake and the lease has been cancelled possibly with mala fide intentions. Another group of fishermen also claimed in the court that the water in the lake was polluted due to the fishing activities and the Karnataka Pollution Control Board had taken note of it. The authorities responded to the petition saying the cooperative did not reply to their notice satisfactorily, so the lease had to be cancelled. The HC noted that the pollution control board had given a report on the quality of the water in the lake. The department had then issued a notice to the cooperative that chemicals used by them had caused pollution. The cooperative had replied that they had not used such chemicals and not even purchased them. Still, the department went ahead and cancelled the licence. The court said that the authorities after issuing the lease in the first place after following procedure cannot unilaterally terminate the lease. It also noted the response of the cooperative that while several lakes in the vicinity were found to have the same quality of water, the fishing lease was cancelled only in Mallaghatta. The HC said that excluding the lake from the fishing policy can be made only as a policy decision. Mallaghatta will have to be excluded from the 2014 fishing policy. The decision this time has been taken based only on complaints by some people and their representatives, which is not justified. The order cancelling the lease was set aside. Fishy figures Karnataka’s inland fish production last year was 1,68,828 metric tons, which is a sharp decline from the previous two years. It is also the lowest in the last six years. On the other hand, fish catch from the sea has been increasing steadily over the last 25 years and stood at 4,11,762 metric tons in 2015-16. In fish farming (aquaculture), commercially manufactured feed is used. This is made from maize, soya, mineral mixture, cotton seeds and other items. Not all feed dumped into the waterbody is eaten by the fish there and some of them remain residual and even end up as suspended matter. This may be noticed in the pumping process when water is extracted for drinking purposes. Though chemicals/hormones are discouraged, it can be the only source of chemicals joining the water system from fish farming, say experts.