The World Fisheries Day is celebrated every year on the 21st of November to highlight the importance of maintaining healthy water ecosystems and to ensure sustainable stocks of fisheries in the world. Fishing communities celebrate this day through rallies, workshops, public meetings, cultural dramas, exhibition, and music shows.

In a local context, the hardworking fishermen communities of India’s Manipur state have endured decades of hardships which have resulted out of man made activities(the ecological consequences of loktak hydel project on the lake, dumping of pollutants into the major lakes of our state through the major rivers) and short term thinking. Despite the hardships, the fishing community of our state remain an inspiration to other working class communities due to their persistence and never say due attitude in the face of numerous obstacles. However, one can only endure to a certain extent. This is where we have to step in; to ensure that the activity and the practitioners who are embedded in our state’s culture and folklore do not perish due to something which is not their fault.

The collective action of our state’s ecological experts, in consultation with the authorities and the fishing communities themselves, is something which ought to be done at the earliest to ensure that the present man made obstacles do not push the practice as well as the practitioners into oblivion.

Asnikumar Singh (Environmentalist) is the spokesperson of BJP Manipur Pradesh