Campbell Bay, 07 Dec 2020
Great Nicobar Island has a vibrant fishing community. Many of these fishermen are members of the settler community, who were settled in Great Nicobar along with the Ex-Servicemen Settlers. Many of them are also relatives of the settlers, who have migrated from mainland India to Campbell Bay in search of better employment long back.
The fishermen community of Campbell Bay are thriving and progressive in their endeavours. They have been constantly trying to modernise their fleet of boats and other equipment to increase their revenue. Several issues are being faced by the members of the fishermen community which needs immediate redressal.
Mr U Sitaram, Board of Director, Fishermen Federation of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who originally hails from the fishermen community of Campbell Bay, spoke to Nicobar Times and explained the common issues faced by the members of the fishermen community of Campbell Bay.
One of the key issues raised by Mr U Sitaram was the unavailability of regular ships to transport the catch of the fishermen of Campbell Bay to other Islands and Port Blair. The fishermen of Campbell Bay store their catch in the Cold Storage of Fisheries Department since it is impossible to sell their whole produce locally. The catch is stored in the cold storage so that it can be transported later to other Islands and Port Blair. Most of the catch of the fishermen are transported to other Islands of the Nicobar District. Port Blair bound ships from Campbell Bay often only stop at Nancowry for a brief period before continuing on its journey to reach Port Blair.
Car Nicobar is the largest consumer of fish from Great Nicobar. The members of the community face a lot of issues in transporting their fish because of the unavailability of regular ships from Campbell Bay to Car Nicobar. The members have been demanding at-least two-ship sailings from Campbell Bay to Car Nicobar in a month so that they can transport their catch.
Mr U Sitaram also raised the issue of unavailability of freezer onboard ships of Andaman and Nicobar Administration. The fishermen involved in transporting their fish to other Islands pack it in an insulated box with ice and then transport it to its destination. This process of packing and transporting the fish in an insulated box is cumbersome and also costly for the fishermen. The cost of the insulated box itself is very high, further, the transportation cost of the box from Campbell Bay to other Island is also high.
The exported catch of the fishermen also gets spoiled at times while transportation because of delay in ships reaching their destinations. To avoid all these problems the fishermen community of Campbell Bay have been demanding that freezers of at-least 1 Ton capacity be installed in all ships that operate between Port Blair and Campbell Bay via other Islands.
Further, as a temporary measure to provide some relief to the fishermen, Mr U Sitaram has demanded that the empty insulated box on its return journey to Campbell Bay should be transported at a reduced cargo freight. The cost of transportation of filled insulation box used for transportation of fish remains the same even when the empty boxes are transported back to Campbell Bay from other Islands.
Mr U Sitaram explained to Nicobar Times that the members of the fishermen community of Campbell Bay have been demanding transportation of their catch of crabs and lobsters to Port Blair by air since a long time. He explained that although Pawan Hans Helicopters and IAF Dornier were providing passenger services almost every day for Campbell Bay before the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no provision for transportation of Cargo by air from Campbell Bay to Port Blair. Crabs and lobsters are high-value products and the fishermen of Campbell Bay have been blessed with an adequate natural abundance of these high-value products here in waters around Great Nicobar Islands. The only problems that these fishermen today face is the transportation of these Crabs and Lobsters to Port Blair from where it is exported to mainland India.
If air cargo services are introduced for Campbell Bay-Port Blair sector these fishermen from Campbell Bay will be able to get a better price for their catch, since they will be able to maintain the quality and will be able to regularly supply the buyers with adequate quantity of their catch.
Mr U Sitaram further informed Nicobar Times that the members of the Fishermen Community of Campbell Bay have not received any equipment on subsidy from the last five years. He mentioned that earlier equipment like fishing nets, fishing lines, fishing hooks etc. were given on subsidy to fishermen by the Fisheries Department through Panchayat Samiti, Campbell Bay.
The responsibility of providing subsidised fishing equipment and consumables were transferred over to Zilla Parishad since the last five years. The members of fishermen community of Campbell Bay have not received anything on subsidy from Zilla Parishad. He further explained that the demand from Campbell Bay was sent over to the Office of Zilla Parishad, South Andaman several times through appropriate channel from Campbell Bay, but the equipment and consumables were never received.
Mr U Sitaram also demanded that the pending works in the newly constructed fish landing centre at Campbell Bay should be completed soon and handed over to the fisheries department for the use of the fishermen.
The lives of the fishermen families of Campbell Bay can be greatly improved by some simple additions to the already existing infrastructure and by ensuring that regular transportation facilities and basic consumables, equipment are made available by the Administration to these fishermen from the Southernmost Territory of India.
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