Fisherfolk of Jaisamand Lake want livelihood issues resolved

Udaipur: Issues related to the protection of reservoirs, conservation of fisheries resources and the rights of tribal fishermen of Rajasthan have made it to the international website of World Wetlands Day after tribal fishermen communities raised their voices.
A programme on these issues was held on the banks of Jaisamand Lake for the first time on World Wetlands Day on Saturday and participated by presidents of fish producer cooperative societies, administrators, and fishermen’s families from the villages around the lake.
“There is a terrible man-made crisis in relation to local waterbodies affecting the livelihood of small fishermen all over the world. The directorate of fisheries has arbitrarily introduced seeds of species from other states in the lake, due to which the fish diversity of the lake has got destroyed. Encroachments are being made on the islands in Jaisamand Lake by the mafia and influential people, badly damaging the lake’s natural form and ecosystem,” said Viren Lobo, he managing trustee of Institute of Ecology and Livelihood Action, an NGO that was one of the organisers of the programme.
Issues related to Jaisamand’s fishermen will be conveyed to the state government, the central government and global organisations like the United Nations, World Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Health Organization (WHO), he said.
“Fish producer cooperative societies have been formed in 22 villages adjacent to Jaisamand Lake, and about 2,500 fishermen families with a population of over 12,000 are associated with them,” said Lobo.
These cooperatives were earlier managed by Rajas Sangh and benefited from government schemes.
Later they were put under the directorate of fisheries, after which the fisherfolk’s condition worsened due to departmental neglect and corruption, he added.