HC directs centre for uniform
fishing ban
Sandesh Prabhudesai
27 September 2002
The
Goa bench of Mumbai high court here has directed the
central government to fix a uniform period for fishing
ban in the sea, for all the states, to avoid confrontation
and allow breeding period for the fish.
Disposing off a public interest litigation filed two years ago, the
local bench has however exempted traditional fishermen
– known as ‘ramponkar’ here – from the ban period.
The ban however covers all kind of mechanised boats
fishing in the sea.
Following the court directives, the centre will be now compelled to
implement a long-pending decision to impose a uniform
ban period for the western coastal states, including
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, besides
Goa.
The intrusion of trawlers in the inter-state territory had become order
of the day as Karnataka ban lasts till 29 July while
Maharashtra allows fishing only after 15 August.
While the trawler lobby in Goa, in collusion with the state government,
had managed earlier to prepone the fishing ban period
from 15 August to 24 July to catch the rich king prawns,
the high court has now once again reversed the decision.
The high court has agreed to the government proposal to ban fishing
from 10 June to 15 August or Narlipournima, whichever
comes earlier. The National Institute of Oceanography,
after calculating the period required for breeding
and spawning, had proposed to ban it till 31 August.
Though the ban till mid-August was imposed by the high court even while
admitting the PIL in July 2000, the state authorities
have found to have been colluding with the trawler
owners to defy the ban.
In view of this, the court has now imposed several
guidelines.
As per these guidelines, licences of all the mechanised boats will
be suspended during the ban period. If any trawler
is found caught fishing, its licence will be cancelled,
allowing no renewal. The authorities are also told
to patrol the whole coast, along with the Coast Guard.
The court has also directed to even suspend the insurance during the
ban period, allowing no claims except any mishap that
occurs at the fishing jetty. All the seven jetties
would be sealed, by not allowing any kind of activity
of fishing or sale of fish. Even petrol and diesel
pumps at the jetty would be sealed.
As the trawler owners had illegally continued fishing during the ban
period in the past, the court has now also instructed
the authorities to seize the trawlers as well as the
vehicles that are found transporting the fish, while
cancelling their vehicular licence.
