Prawn gheries pushed Chilka fishermen to migrate-CMM

Bhubaneswar, May 04 (UNI) Illegal prawn gheries by the mafias in the Chilka Lake, has forced thousands of traditional fishermen eking out their livelihood from fishing to migrate in search of job.

Chilka Mastchyajibee Mahasangha(CMM), an apex body of the Chilka Fishermen, alleged that over 30,000 fishermen had already left their villages for far off places like Chennai,Bangalore,Kerla and Surat to sustain their livelihood.

The situation, the CMM said, would soon turn into explosive leading to the repeatation of the 1989 Soran firing if the authority failed to take any concrete steps to put an end to the alarmingly rising of illegal prawn gheries inside the lake.

CMM president Balaram Das and Secretary Anadi Behera accused the state government of being responsible for the unfortunate situation of thousands of poor fishermen leaving the lake unable to sustain their livelihood.

They alleged that Chilka lake will be slowly turning into a ''fishless'' situation following largescale prawn gheries and unregulated fishing using zero net at the confluence points by the mafias.

The state government, they alleged, had connived with the mafias and at the cost of the three lakh fishermen spread over 145 villages, depending on the lake for their livelihood for decades.

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