A foul smell wafted around in Aatrankarai, a fishing hamlet located on Vaigai river mouth, as a large number of fish were found dead in the backwaters abutting the village on Wednesday. The livelihood of about 2,000 people of the village, who made a living by fishing in the backwaters and the sea, was severely hit as the water in the entire stretch had turned poisonous’, resulting in the death of the fish, after shrimp farms let out effluents into the backwaters, the villagers said. Mass fish deaths took place in the backwaters on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the villagers blamed the more than 200 shrimp farms for that. Stating that they were forced to stop fishing in the backwaters, the villagers appealed to the district administration to prevent the shrimp farms from discharging effluents and protect their livelihood. Adding to their woes was the closure of the river mouth due to accumulation of sand mounds, they said. They had been facing problem to their livelihood for more than a year after the river mouth got closed, said S. Mohamed Ali Jinnah, president of Aatrankarai Fishermen Cooperative Society. While a small section of fishermen confined to the backwaters, most of the fishermen ventured into the sea for fishing and after the river mouth got closed, fishing and keeping the boats on the seashore became extremely difficult, he said. In the absence of a direct access to the backwaters from the sea, they could not keep their boats on the seashore, and bringing them to the banks of the backwaters whenever the sea became rough became difficult, he said. Last week they presented a petition to Collector S. Natarajan, requesting him to arrange removal of the sand mounds and ensure that the river mouth remained open, he said.