Blow to fishermen as rising temperatures snuff life out of fish

​Mahbubnagar: Though the State government had taken several steps to provide livelihood to the fisherman community by filling up all the reservoirs, lakes and ponds through lift irrigation projects and releasing fishlings in them across the district, the initiative has been severely hit due to prevailing hot weather condition and apathy of officials from Fisheries department, who are unable to protect the fish from prevailing weather conditions.

The fishermen community in Devarkadra mandal of the district, who are surviving by fishing in Koilsagar Reservoir, are finding fish lying dead due to soaring temperatures.

“Last year, the reservoir was full and Fisheries Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav had come here and released 8 lakh fishlings in the reservoir. As this is a harvesting period, we expected good catch. But to our surprise, we have found fish in the pond dying due to hot sunny days. More than half of the fish is already dead and we are facing huge loss this year,” observed Sudhakar, a fisherman from Devarkadra.

According to officials of Fisheries department, the main reason for the fish death is raise in temperature. As the district has been facing severe hot weather condition for the past 15 days, the oxygen levels in the water has been decreasing causing the fish to die.

Meanwhile, the fishermen have alleged that though the officials from Fisheries department were visiting regularly, they were not giving any suggestions or taking steps to protect the fish. “The officials come and go, but they do not tell us anything to protect the dying fish. This year, we expected better yield. But to fish deaths, we are facing huge loss. We urge the government to take steps to protect us from this grave loss,” said Venkataiah, another fisherman from Devarkadra.

This year, the rains have also become very elusive for the fishermen community. Majority of the reservoirs and lakes are not replenished, leaving another reason for the fishermen to worry. Instead of taking enough steps to protect the fish in the reservoirs, lakes, the Fisheries department has already charted its plans to release new fishlings in Gadwal and Nagarkurnool districts.

Last year, the department had released 39 lakh fishlings in six reservoirs, 40 lakes and 250 ponds in Gadwal district. This year, soon after all these water bodies are filled with water from Jurala lift irrigation projects, the department is planning to release 80 lakh fishlings.

Similarly in Nagarkurnool district, last year the government had released 74 lakh fishlings. This year, it has proposed to release 1.3 crore small fish and 16 lakh big fish across 136 department control lakes and 1,100 Gram Panchayat lakes across the district.