In coastal villages, the heavy toll of shrimp farming | Kolkata - Hindustan Times
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In coastal villages, the heavy toll of shrimp farming

Jul 13, 2022 09:56 PM IST

The growth of highly saline fish farms along the coast has not only had enormous environmental costs — due to their negative effects on water and land — but has led to great losses and huge debts for villagers in the area. 

Jyotsna Bar, 32, was eagerly waiting at her thatched hut at the edge of a casuarina forest overlooking the sea. Her two daughters, aged six and 12, had gone to catch seeds of tiger prawns in waist-deep water, as the tide was still low.

Government estimates suggest that land equal to that of 40 Dharavi slums has been transformed into aquaculture ponds. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo) PREMIUM
Government estimates suggest that land equal to that of 40 Dharavi slums has been transformed into aquaculture ponds. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

“You hardly get fish nowadays in the sea. This was not the case even a decade ago. Now we need to go at least four to five times to the sea to keep the family going,” said Bar, a resident of Baguran Jalpai, a coastal village in East Midnapore district, around 160 km south of Kolkata.

While catching fish in the Bay of Bengal has been a practice for several years, the production of inland fisheries from fish farms in the villages has been rising. Large swathes of fertile farmlands are being gradually — and illegally — transformed into aquaculture ponds to produce Vannamei shrimps, a native of Peru and Mexico.

Government estimates suggest that land equal to that of 40 Dharavi slums has been transformed into aquaculture ponds, in the coastal belt of West Bengal alone, between 2006-07 and 2017-18.

“This shrimp is coming at a huge environmental cost. The saline water used to grow shrimps destroys soil fertility. The polluted water from the fish farms is drained into the sea after each harvest. This takes a heavy toll on the fish population,” Santanu Chacraverti, president of DISHA, an NGO working on this issue.

HT travelled to some of the coastal villages to find out about this transformation and its impact.

Green farmlands give way to blue fences

As one travels down the narrow-metaled road leading to the beach, what catches the eye are large shrimp farms. They are easily identifiable as they are all fenced with blue nylon nets. Motor-fitted pedals can be seen rotating in the water to keep the shrimps alive.

“Vannamei shrimp farms are all over the village now. A handful of villagers still cultivate tiger prawns and giant freshwater prawns. But it is mostly the Vannamei cultivation that has shot up in the last decade. If all goes well, the profit margin is huge. But risks are also involved,” said Debabrata Khutia, a villager.

Shrimp farms are easily identifiable as they are all fenced with blue nylon nets.(Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)
Shrimp farms are easily identifiable as they are all fenced with blue nylon nets.(Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

The National Wetland Inventory and Assessment (NWIA), which was published in February this year, and provides a satellite-based decadal change analysis of wetlands, revealed that in the area under aquaculture ponds, only in the three coastal districts of West Bengal have shot up from 55,299 hectares in 2006-07 to 65,056 hectares in 2017-18. The area under aquaculture ponds in other districts of the state too have shot up by 6,596 hectares during the same period.

The NWIA report states that West Bengal has got the highest share (36%) of the area under coastal aquaculture farming in the country.

A Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed that while production of marine fishery in West Bengal has shown signs of decline between 2011 and 2021, the production of the inland fishery has shot up from 12.66 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in 2011 to 16.46 lakh MT in 2021.

The shrimp you eat comes at a cost

Burgeoning shrimp farming in the coastal villages is, however, taking a huge toll on the environment, experts have said.

“Saline water from the sea, which is allowed to flow into the shallow aquaculture ponds through canals, ultimately seeps into the adjacent farmlands. They soon become useless as paddy or vegetables won’t grow due to high salinity. The owner would be forced to start shrimp cultivation himself or give it to someone on lease for aquaculture” said Debasis Shyamal, national council member of the National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers.

The problem starts when villagers, in a bid to increase the profit margin, overstock the illegal ponds with shrimp seeds. The pond needs to be aerated regularly and there has to be a steady supply of fish feed, medicines, and antibiotics as diseases often break out in overcrowded ponds.

While unbridled and unscientific fishing by huge fishing trawlers over the years has taken its toll on the marine fishery, the fish farms along the coast are now having their own impact. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)
While unbridled and unscientific fishing by huge fishing trawlers over the years has taken its toll on the marine fishery, the fish farms along the coast are now having their own impact. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

“Once the harvest is done the sludge at the ponds bottom and the water, a cocktail of antibiotics, fish feed and other medicines are drained into the sea through the canals. This takes a toll on the fish population in the sea as far as this polluted water travels,” said Ajanta Dey, joint secretary and programme director of the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society, a Kolkata-based NGO.

While unbridled and unscientific fishing by huge fishing trawlers over the years has taken its toll on the marine fishery, the fish farms along the coast are now having their own impact.

“Every time the water from the fish farms is released into the sea through the canals, you can differentiate it. The water is blackish in colour. The catch drops. A decade ago we used to get 10-12 kilos of fish per day. Now we have to stay in the sea for 12-15 hours, and invest more to purchase at least 5-6 fishing nets to get only half the amount of fish. When the water from the fish farms is released, the catch drops further and comes down to a few hundred grams,” said Ranjit Bar, husband of Jyotsna Bar.

All that glitters is not gold

Naba Kumar Jana, 48, started Vannamei culture in 2021 in his small pond. He, however, suffered a loss. This time again, he has released shrimp seeds, hoping to get some good returns and recover the loss.

“All goes well as long as you get good returns. As the investment runs into a few lakh rupees villagers take loans from money lenders and buy fish medicine and feed on credit. But once you suffer a loss, because of some disease outbreak, there is no way you can recover it by returning to agriculture. Once in the debt trap, you have to do shrimp cultivation. It is like a gamble,” said Jana.

Jana, who has suffered one year of losses, already has a debt of nearly two lakh rupees. His neighbour, Dipak Sit, who has been doing Vennamei cultivation since 2017, and has suffered losses for at least two years, has a debt of more than three lakh rupees.

“Almost everyone in this area is debt-ridden, but none reveal it. Because the moment moneylenders come to know that a person is suffering losses, they would demand their money back. Pressure also starts building on those who gave things on credit, such as medicines. Ultimately if a person fails to return the money, he is left with three options: Flee from the village abandoning everything, die by suicide, or give his farm on lease to someone in exchange for money and work as a labourer on it,” said Sit.

What the government is going

The Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act (CAAA) 2005 has laid out detailed guidelines for such shrimp farming. These include the following: The pond should be at least 50m away from farmland, 100m away from human habitat, and the distance between two ponds shouldn’t be less than 20m, and so on.

But villagers and NGOs working in the area said that these rules are not followed and most of the farms are running illegally without following any rules.

The pond should be at least 50m away from farmland, 100m away from human habitat, and the distance between two ponds shouldn’t be less than 20m. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)
The pond should be at least 50m away from farmland, 100m away from human habitat, and the distance between two ponds shouldn’t be less than 20m. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

“The highly intensive shrimp farming that is going on in the coastal villages is illegal. Farmlands are being converted into aquaculture ponds and the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act is being violated. We have submitted deputations to the district administration more than once” said Tamal Taru Das Mahapatra, president of East Midnapore Fishermen Forum, a branch of the South Bengal Fishermen Forum.

While the government accepted the fact that not everything is going as per law and only a handful of the farms are legally registered, officials said that awareness levels are being raised in the villages through camps.

“If we get complaints, we act accordingly. But we have not received any such complaints from Baguran Jalpai that fish farms have come up adjacent to farmlands taking a toll on the agriculture. I won’t say that everything is going in the right manner, but at least the number of complaints has come down over the year,” said Akhil Giri, state fishery minister.

A senior official of the state fishery department said that only around 2000 fish farms in East Midnapore district are registered as per the CAAA, 2005.

“Most of the farms are running illegally. Fish farming close to fertile farmlands and the polluter water being drained into the sea is a real issue. The government is raising awareness so that the environmental impact could be scaled down and more people register their fish farms,” said an official.

Mitigating the impact

Scientists and experts working in this field are now campaigning for Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture Management, which will mitigate the impact of shrimp farms on the environment.

“The idea is to plant mangrove species on the banks of the ponds for bioremediation. The leaves of mangrove trees have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties which help to bring down the use of antibiotics and medicines. Also, the mangrove helps bring down the level of carbon dioxide and methane,” said Punyasloke Bhadury, a biologist from IISER, Kolkata.

While Bhadury and his team are holding talks with some villagers who are into shrimp farming to start the Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture Management, a pilot project has already taken off in South 24 Parganas.

“Mangroves are known for their bioremediation properties. Our research has found that mangroves in the Sundarbans have trapped all kinds of metals from copper to zinc. They are locked in the woody stems this keeping the surrounding water clean,” said Abhijit Mitra, former head of the marine sience department of Calcutta University.

Scientists and experts working in this field are now campaigning for Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture Management, which will mitigate the impact of shrimp farms on the environment. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)
Scientists and experts working in this field are now campaigning for Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture Management, which will mitigate the impact of shrimp farms on the environment. (Joydeep Thakur/HT Photo)

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Joydeep Thakur is a Special Correspondent based in Kolkata. He focuses on science, environment, wildlife, agriculture and other related issues.

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