Nearly 1 lakh fishermen in the Sundarbans, both within its tiger reserve and close to forest area falling within South 24-Parganas, have not been able to pursue their livelihood for more than a month as the distribution of annual boat licence certificates (BLCs) by the forest department has been stalled.
The licence certificate is mandatory for entering the reserve forest area for fishing.
Forest officials pointed out that the distribution of BLCs could not be started this year as a revision of the existing list of BLC-holders is currently underway and waiting for approval from the chief minister office’s after being forwarded by the forest department.
Normally, the BLCs are distributed before July every year. This year, fisherman have lost at least 45 days and least three peak periods to catch fish. The revision of the list of BLCs — a long-standing demand of many marginalised fishermen — was necessitated in the wake of complaints about many fishermen having illegally documents.
Often, fishermen with the BLCs rent them out to others for hefty sums. But the delay in correcting this graft is proving to be costly for fishermen.
“Due to this one-and-a-half-month gap, our fishermen have lost substantially on income,” said Milan Das, general secretary of Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (DMF), an association of small-scale fishermen.
The forum demanded that the existing system of BLC be disbanded. They suggested that each valid fisherman should be given a permit to enter forest area.
There are about 690 boat licence certificates under scanner in the Sundarbans tiger reserve area. Around 2,000 boat licences are supposed to be distributed in the entire South 24-Parganas forest area.
Normally one boat, with a licence, can take around five persons on an average for fishing within the otherwise restricted area, generally facilitating high fish yield.
“We sent the file to the chief minister’s office about a month back after I spoke with the MLAs of the region. Chief secretary Manoj Pant had a meeting with our officials. We are waiting for the file to return,” said forest minister Birbaha Hansda, the forest minister of Bengal to The Telegraph on Saturday afternoon.
According to sources, the fisheries department had also sent their feedback to the CMO sometime back. Minister Hansda admitted to complaints that many BLC holders were ineligible and renting out their certificates to others against hefty sums.
“It has also been said that often other fishermen spend a longer time on the boat for a bigger catch to earn enough money for the BLC rental. That’s how they run the risk of being attacked by tigers,” the minister added.
“While undeserving people get BLCs and make money out of them, many deserving fishermen don’t get the document. Many small fishermen, who cannot manage to obtain BLCs by hook or crook are forced to enter the Sundarbans forest without valid permission. If any of them suffer from a tiger attack, he is denied the mandatory compensation. This cycle has been going on for years,” said a middle-aged fisherman from Bali Island.
“We expect the new BLC list to be released soon. But it is unlikely to have many changes,” said a local official.