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Chilika Lake is the largest brackish water lake in India and one the largest in Asia. Besides being home to hundreds of types of wildlife, the lake is also a popular tourist attraction. However, torn between human intervention and Mother Nature, the lake's entire ecosystem lies at risk.
The 1,000-square-kilometer (386-sq.-mi.) Chilika Lake straddles three districts in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. The lake, declared a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1981, is home to 225 species of fish and 165 species of birds. It also sustains nearly 25,000 fishermen in the three Orissa districts of Khurda, Ganjam, and Puri.
However, the beautiful lagoon, which plays host to hundreds of thousands of migratory birds each winter, presently finds itself beset with problems. The commercial exploitation of the lake is taking its toll on the water body and the aquatic life it harbors. Furthermore, the silt load of Chilika keeps growing, making it shallower. Experts at the laboratory of Integrated Watershed Management (INWAMA), an interdisciplinary Asian-European partnership project, have studied remote-sensing data collected by satellite. According to INWAMA, the lake has shrunk by approximately 200 square kilometers (77 sq. mi.) in the last 10 years.
The Prawn Culture
But the biggest problem of Chilika Lake is, by far, the illegal prawn culture. It has turned into a full-fledged racket, with big money being pumped into the business by the rich and influential from major Orissa cities like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Balasore. Even people from outside Orissa have been investing money in prawn culture, which has turned into a multi-million industry. The highest quality prawn from Chilika Lake, with a price ranging anywhere from 900 Indian rupees (US$20) to 1,100 Indian rupees (US$25) per kilogram, is exported to Europe, Japan, and the United States.
Intensive prawn culture was banned in Chilika Lake by the Supreme Court of India in 1996. However, the farming continues in the area in gross violation of the court's directive, with the Orissa government unable to check the racket. Prawn culture is threatening the livelihoods of traditional fishermen. This has brought the traditional fishing community of Chilika Lake into confrontation with the prawn farmers. Anadi Behera, a member of the Chilika Fishermen Federation (an umbrella organization of traditional fishermen) said, "Prawn culture pollutes the lake since culturists use various kinds of chemicals and pesticides. This will sound the death bell of the aquatic life in the lake."
Chemicals used in intensive prawn farming include fertilizers, disinfectants, and liming materials. These can cause potential harm to a variety of aquatic life, including fish. The annual fish yield from the lake fell from 6,000 metric tonnes in 1988 to 1,641 metric tonnes in 1998, giving weight to the fishermen's argument. The Chilika Development Authority (CDA), formed since 1992, has been making efforts to improve conditions. However, prawn farming continues to take a heavy toll on the lake's fishery resources.
A Lucrative Business
The worst part of the problem is the disastrous nexus between local politicians and the prawn farmers. Due to this bond, the prawn farmers have been successful in blocking efforts by the administration to demolish their prawn culture enclosures in the lake. Since 1992, the government has launched four major drives to destroy the illegal prawn culture structures in order to protect the livelihoods of traditional fishermen. None of these drives succeeded in completely destroying the structures, however. The culturists always managed to scuttle the campaigns against them using political influence.
The prawn industry being a lucrative proposition, the involvement of politicians and bureaucrats in the prawn system is an open secret, though one difficult to prove. However, minister-turned-environmentalist, the late Banka Bihari Das, openly raised an accusing finger at politicians and bureaucrats though he refrained from naming anybody. The government has yet to counter his allegations.
Since they cannot engage in the banned prawn culture directly because it would be seen as a violation of the Supreme Court directive, the politicians and bureaucrats do it through their agents. The accruing profits reach them while the agents take their cut. This convenient arrangement protects the culturists by blocking all government drives against them. The division among politicians over the issue of prawn farming is evident from the fact that legislators fail to agree on a law regulating fishing in Chilika Lake. The proposed law has been pending approval for more than six months now.
Among other things, the draft law proposes to curb prawn culture while accommodating the fishing rights of both traditional and non-traditional fishermen. This, however, is not acceptable to culturists, who would not accept any attempt to curb prawn culture. On the other hand, traditional fishermen allege that the government is being too soft towards the culturists by proposing to give them fishing rights.
During the past ten years, there have been several clashes between traditional fishermen and prawn culturists, leading to police intervention at times. In one case of such intervention in 1999, the police opened fire on a mob of protesting traditional fishermen at Sorana village on the periphery of the lake, killing three of them. The killings helped further intensify the agitation of traditional fishermen against prawn culture.
The Dying Dolphins
While prawn culture has badly polluted the lake, the silt load keeps increasing, making the lake shallower. Silt is daily being deposited into the lake by rivers such as the Bhargavi, Kusumi, Nuna, and Salia. This has made the lake quite shallow in large stretches, affecting even the characteristics of Nalabana Island at the center of the lake. The island was declared a bird sanctuary in December 1987. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds from various parts of Asia and Europe have been flocking to Nalabana each winter for a two-month stay. However, the past two years have seen a sizeable number of these avian guests flying out of the island to other nearby wetlands. Having become shallower, the lake leaves the island waterlogged, making it harder for the birds to get a foothold there.
Commercial tourism, too, has been choking the waters of Chilika Lake. It is no longer the peaceful, idylic spot it was four to five decades ago. Every day, nearly 250 tourist boats go onto the lake from various points on sightseeing missions. The outboard engines that these boats use not only pollute the water, but they also cause a lot of noise that disturbs aquatic life. However, the most alarming aspect of tourism in Chilika Lake has been the heavy toll that it has been taking on the Irrawaddy dolphins found in areas of the lake. As many as 34 dolphins died in the lake in the three years between 2003 and 2005. Ever since, at least two more dolphin casualties have been reported, but the government is yet to find a way of preventing these deaths.
Some of the dolphins have been killed by propeller hits of boats and fishing trawlers while others have been choked by gillnets. However, most of them have died out of sheer exhaustion after being relentlessly chased by the tourist boats for hours. In their bid to have the closest possible look at these beautiful sea mammals, the tourists cause them heavy damage, both physically and mentally. Sensitive as the dolphins are, they sometimes die out of the fear induced by the constant chase.
What is worse is that nearly one third of the dolphins to die in the lake since 2003 have been young ones. Their loss is likely to severely affect the growth of their population, as dolphins are known to be slow breeders. The government is contemplating imposing a ban on the use of fishing nets in the Satpada area of the lake where dolphins are frequently sighted. Thus far, however, it has been unable to do anything about the tourist boats chasing these animals in the lake. Some estimates claim the Irrawaddy dolphin population in the lake has dropped to 50 individuals. If the operation of tourist boats continues unchecked, the population of dolphins in Chilika Lake may be wiped out completely.
A Difficult Task
The only ray of hope is the CDA's plan to educate the operators of motorized boats and launches in the lake about the need to protect animals like the dolphins. The CDA is also attempting to convince tourists that they should not insist on boatmen taking them very close to the dolphins because this may scare the mammals and have an adverse impact on their health.
However, convincing tourists and boat operators in this regard may not be an easy task. Tourism is one of the biggest industries thriving on Chilika Lake, and the government itself earns a lot of revenues from the tourists. In fact, the government has been speculating about inviting private sector participation to ensure the growth of tourism infrastructure in the area. None of this can be done without causing harm to the natural beauty and wildlife of the lake, however.
"Private entrepreneurs will be acting out of sheer commercial interest. They will look to set up resorts on the islands dotting the lake and doing everything possible to earn money. They are unlikely to have any regard either for the conservation of nature or the history of Chilika [Lake]," said Anadi Behera, the Chilika Fishermen Federation activist.
No one would know this better than the traditional fishermen like him, who love the lake like their mothers because it forms the basis of their livelihoods.
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