Fishworkers on a beach

Calcutta, June 17: They didn’t know what marine SEZ was till the day they were told of acquiring their land on the coast for building port, shipping yard and even resorts to cater to international tourists.

“Nobody ever bothered to ask the fishworkers whether they were ready to part with sea fishing before chalking out the coastal zone management plan,” said Harekrishna Debnath, the chairperson of National Fishworkers’ Forum.

Debnath has been leading the Machhimar Adhikar Rashtriya Abhiyan, which started in Kutch in Gujarat on May 1. The coastal rally — focused to ensure fishermen’s traditional livelihood amid “sale of coastal land to private companies” — covered more than 2,000km and entered Orissa yesterday. It would cover all the coastal districts in six days sensitising villagers of the disaster they face because of the plan. According to the plan, 13 ports, including Dhamra, Gopalpur and Kirtaniya, would soon be built in Orissa. “The plan has also suggested that fishing cannot be done in 20km into the sea,” said Debnath after a rally in Chhatrapur.

Wildlife experts are also averse to the idea. “The project to develop coastal areas would end the concept of fishing as well as destroy marine ecology,” said environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty, the chairman of Wildlife Society of Orissa.

Orissa State Coastal Zone Management Authority chairman S.S. Chahar was not available for comment. However, one of the senior officials said that the “government was considering the livelihood aspect of the fishermen”.

(with inputs from Subrat Das in Bhubaneswar)