Tsunami’s and a Secure FutureDr. John Kurien

Centre for Development Studies

Trivandrum, Kerala

Ecosystem understanding

Continental shelf configuration

Gentle slope

Low surf

Steep slope

High surf

Fishery resource configuration

50m

90 per cent of fishery resource is in 10 per cent of the sea area closest to the coast

Initial conditions

Green belt cover

Mangrove

Seagrass, coral reefs

Social forestry

Low impact areas: Point Calimere (gentle slope and high green cover)

High impact areas: Velakkanni(steep slope, no green cover, CRZ violations)

High impact areas:Nagapattinam(steep slope, no green cover, CRZ violations)

Fisherfolk as outliers

Coastal Information• Coastal length: 1076 km

» East coast: 1016 km

» West coast: 60km

• Number of coastal districts: 13

• Number of marine fishing villages: 591

• Total marine fisherfolk population: 737,203

• Number of fishing craft: 68,036» Mechanized craft: 11,889

» Vallam: 23,109

» Catamarans: 33,038

District-wise information

Name of DistrictNo. of

Fishing Villages

Marine fisherfolk population

Percentage of total

Chennai 44 77067 10Cuddalore 49 44014 6Nagapattinam 51 86516 12Kanniyakumari 42 149607 20In All Coastal Districts

591 737,203

DensityDensity for the district

Density per sq. km for fishing villages*

Fisherfolk per km coastline

Active fishers per sq.km of inshore waters (0-50 mts depth)

Cuddalore 626 1412 706 17Nagapattinam 548 849 425 9Kanyakumari 992 3858 1929 26Total for Tamil Nadu 478 1338 669

* Assumption: fishing villages are located half a kilometer from coastline

District-wise:Housing facilities in fishing villages

56

1310

21

15 1411

43

2932

59

14

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Chennai Cuddalore Nagapattinam Kanyakumari

District Name

Perc

enta

ge

Terraced

Tiled

Thatched

Literacy rate

Coastal Districts For the whole district In fishing villages ShortfallChennai 80 68 12Cuddalore 72 59 13Nagapattinam 77 57 20Kanyakumari 88 78 10Total 73 64 9

Sex Ratio

Coastal Districts For the Whole district For fishing villages Missing WomenChennai 951 944 7Cuddalore 985 946 39Nagapattinam 1014 955 59Kanyakumari 1013 942 71Total for Tamil Nadu 985 957 28

District-wise: Census of marine fisherfolk by ageIn Fishing villages

Name of the Districts 0-5 6-17 18-40 41-65 Above 65 TotalChennai 7,372 16,002 33,919 12,601 1,163 71,057 Cuddalore 4,554 10,039 18,659 6,668 662 40,582 Nagapattinam 11,103 20,807 34,297 12,474 1,087 79,768 Kanyakumari 15,187 33,931 60,144 24,975 3,703 137,940 Total 38,216 80,779 147,019 56,718 6,615 329,347 Percentage 12 25 45 17 2

Source: Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department Census Report 2000

Tamil Nadu: Percentage of marine fisherfolk population by religion

89

100 98

0

56

10

0 2

100

37

1 0 0 07

-

20

40

60

80

100

120

Chennai Cuddalore Nagapattinam Kanyakumari Total Tamil Nadu

Districts

Perce

ntag

e

Hindu

Christian

Muslim

Fishery features

Most Important Types of Fishing Techniques

Source: Cushing. D.H. Fisheries Resources of the Sea and Their Management.Oxford University Press, UK, 1975

District-wise: Fishing craft

1094 975

2419

232

1429

12367

628

130

4077

1102

6549

7067

1194

4357

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Chennai Cuddalore and Villupuram Nagapattinam Kanyakumari (East) Kanyakumari (West)

District names

Num

ber

Mechanized craft Vallam

Catamarans

District-wise: Mechanized fishing craft

TotalName of the District

Wooden FRP Steel Trawler Gill netter

Liner

Chennai 903 5 0 855 53 0 908Cuddalore 417 223 0 372 268 0 640Nagapattinam 1444 21 0 1411 54 0 1465Kanyakumari 1372 0 11 759 186 438 1383Total 4136 249 11 3397 561 438 4396

Mechanised BoatsMake Type

District-wise: Non-mechanized fishing craft

Name of the District Wooden FRP Plywood Masula and Vallam

Dugout Canoe

Catamaran

Total

Chennai 1,601 61 - 8 - 1,654 1,662 Cuddalore 4,542 758 - 100 288 4,612 5,000 Nagapattinam 3,602 467 60 160 73 3,896 4,129 Kanyakumari 5,708 74 3,584 3,770 - 5,596 9,366 Total for Tamil Nadu 36,225 2,081 3,764 13,965 533 27,274 41,772

Non Mechanised BoatsMake

District-wise:Fishing gear

Name of the District Gillnet Trawlnet Shore seine Boat seine Long line seine

Trap Others Total

Chennai 5,878 18,257 43 255 672 - 743 9,418 Cuddalore 53,355 992 368 28 238 - 1,006 55,987 Nagapattinam 27,111 2,614 1,116 439 289 471 612 32,652 Kanyakumari 14,954 1,640 190 - 5,851 768 1,332 24,735 Total 101,298 23,503 1,717 722 7,050 1,239 3,693 122,792

District-wise: Estimated marine fish production

Name of the District

1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003

Percentage to total for 2003

Chennai 15,889 16,040 14,555 15,118 11,416 11,477 17,420 5 Cuddalore 26,768 25,938 27,282 25,064 20,451 20,525 45,023 12 Nagapattinam 71,170 70,212 71,284 70,422 66,002 66,248 43,974 12 Kanyakumari 37,740 46,440 38,316 41,652 49,716 49,951 19,643 5 Total 350,790 356,487 377,483 373,926 372,402 373,861 379,214

District-wise: Estimated marine fish production

-

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003

Year

in m

etr

ic t

on

ne

s

Chennai

Cuddalore

Nagapattinam

Kanyakumari

Total

District-wise: Marine fish production by fishing gear

Name of Gear Chennai Cuddalore Nagai and Thiruvarur

Kanyakumari Total

Trawl net 3,900 3,416 28,442 482 145,920 Gillnet 9,127 27,704 11,305 8,339 116,219 Hook net 4,014 1,032 2,141 6,525 23,836 Total 17,041 32,152 41,888 15,346 285,975

Implications for resource management

• Tsunami or no tsunami, there is an important question to be raised about long-term marine resource management in Tamil Nadu

• Has the disaster reduced some unwanted capacity in the fishery?

• Does this disaster context provide an opportunity to address these issue?

Reactions to Actionaid intervention

Immediate Relief

• Menu of alternatives preferred over standardized approach to facilitate greater creativity and space for many actors

• Good useful ideas will tend to diffuse faster

• Look for neglected areas

Livelihood support (medium-term)• Fishing

– Craft– Kattumarams

» Kerala Forest Department for wood, » SIFFS for quality control and supply

– New beach landing craft» SIFFS boat yards and others

– Trawlers» No new trawlers, only transfer of capacity from other parts of State

– Gear– Webbing as desired

– Engines– Longtail diesel (greaves lambardini)– OBMs

Livelihood support (medium-term) (contd.)

• Fish processing and marketing• Low cost hygienic fish processing techniques for domestic market• Shore market infrastructure (tanks, curing and drying yards)• Mobile flake ice machines• Transportation facilities

– Women driven autos, mopeds

• Other trades• Provision of capital or materials

• Training for new alternatives• Construction groups• Sea safety corps• Health and sanitation brigades• Green belt volunteers• Resource management committees

Livelihood support (medium-term) (contd.)

• Information exchange on problems and solutions to different issues from tsunami affected regions around the world

Livelihood support (long-term)

Need for master plan to be discussed with Government, to negotiate the rightful role of NGOs and civil society– Housing away from CRZ (Jaigopal’s note)– Water and sanitation alternatives (Paul Calvert’s note)– Infrastructure (roads, communities facilities)– Greenbelts in CRZ– Communication (safety, market information)– Resource management

Whom to work with?

• Caste panchayat (current and long term)

• Community youth (data collection, new skill training)

• SHGs (women’s issues)

• Boat owner associations and fishermen cooperatives (fishery and resource management issues)

Source of information

• All the data, information and photographs are from the – International Collective in Support of

Fishworkers, Documentation Centre, 27, College Road, Chennai – 600 006