Climate Change, COVID-19 Burden India's Fisherfolk: Sustaining Livelihood in Lockdown

Last year, India’s fishing community faced the brunt of cyclones. Most of the cyclones after 1974 happened in 2019. The community was still reeling under the losses from the previous year when COVID-19 hit hard. With the enforcement of social distancing, officials of fisheries departments began mulling how such restrictions could be put in place for the fishing harbour, landing centres, and auction houses. Though fisheries have been exempted from the lockdown rules, there are other looming concerns. With the export sector looking fuzzy, and the warehouses packed, where and how will the fisherfolk sell their catch? In this article, Sharada Balasubramanian shares valuable insights.

- Sharada Balasubramanian

India faced almost nine cyclonic storms in 2019, the highest on record since 1974. While the fishing community was still grappling with the previous year’s losses, COVID-19 emerged, denting their incomes further. The number of fishing days was reduced drastically due to both climate change risks and the COVID-19 scare.

India’s vast coastline of 7500 km is a source of livelihood for almost 16 million people—the beneficiaries not just include the fisherfolk but also the populace of ice breakers, fish vendors, vehicle owners carrying fish, and boat owners among others. Pradip Chatterjee, President, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers (NPSSFW), says, ‘In West Bengal alone, if you take all categories of fish workers, fishers, fish farmers, fish vendors, there are about 3 million people. Marine fishers are smaller (communities) in West Bengal as the coastline is very short. There are 0.2–0.3 million (fishers) in the marine fisheries.’

Due to cyclones, last year, the number of months the fisherfolk spent on the sea had reduced considerably. With five months of time lost due to cyclones, and now because of the lockdown, their woes have only multiplied.

Impact of Climate Change

There is no doubt that climate change has been affecting the marine and inland fisheries. Additionally, environmental challenges such as ocean acidification, coral bleaching, and altered river flows also impact the fisherfolk.