The Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR) has started cancelling boat licensing certificates (BLC) — a document needed to venture into the mangroves on fishing activities — that are no longer being used by the holders, who are now renting them out to fishermen.
According to an official, of the 691 BLCs active under STR now, over 90% have been rented out as the original holders do not go fishing.
“Some of them now even stay in Delhi and have addresses in Dum Dum, Salt Lake and other parts of Kolkata. They are renting these licences out to fishermen in the Sundarbans against rent that runs as high as Rs 1.2 lakh. Those who are paying rent for these licences are poor fishermen who need to recover these high costs and even venture into the prohibited zones of the forest creating a pressure on the ecosystem,” said Justine Jones, deputy field director of the STR.
According to him, the original licences were issued in the 70s. They have been renewed every year for nine months since then. He added that the original BLC owners now have other income sources. “So, they don’t need them. We have done several rounds of verification and found that over 90% of 691 active BLCs in the STR are being rented out. We have decided to cancel them and issue them afresh to fishermen who actually need them,” added Jones.
According to him, one round of hearing — a part of the process to cancel the BLCs — is over and another round is on.
“There is also involvement of middlemen through whom the original BLC owners rent them out to the fishermen. A cartel of these middlemen now exists in the Canning area. Their commission runs up to as high as Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000,” added a senior forest department official.
BLCs for fishing activities are issued to non-mechanised boats every year for a period of nine months, barring the breeding season of April, May and June. Animesh Mandal, deputy speaker of South 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad, said: “We have urged the forest dept to give the permits only to real fishermen who venture into the mangroves for fishing.”