The fishing industry in Daman and Diu has seen a drop of 64.3% in the last decade, says the superintendent of fisheries for Daman and Diu Abhilasha Agarwal and she blames the polluted effluents from the Vapi industrial estate for this huge loss. Daman administrators add that though there are 3,174 units in Silvassa they are least polluting and that only a large concentration of effluents from Vapi industrial estate is responsible for pollution.
There was a time when in 2000-01 Daman recorded a catch of 2,526 tonne per annum, which drastically dropped to 910 tonne in 2009-10. It was only recently that the Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh declared that Vapi was indeed the most polluted town in the country.
"The fish have migrated due to polluted effluents being released in the sea," says Agarwal. A prized catch like the Gol fish whose bladder used to fetch Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a kilo is in scarcity. Other fish like Dara, Pomphret, leather fish and Kut have decreased drastically. Read the full report here.
Source: Hardik Shah, TNN
