Nature has played truant for the marine fishermen of Rajnagar and Mahakalpada blocks. First, Phailin, then floods and now week- long incessant rains have forced the marine fishermen to remain indoors as venturing into sea involves risk. As a result, the fisher folks are spending a difficult time to collect their daily bread and butter.
According to Annatha Das, a trawler owner of Bengali -dominated Kharanashi village, “My trawler had gone for fishing for the last time on October 10 into the sea. But it returned midway following cyclonic storm Phailin. Since then, my trawler has been anchored in the Kharnashi jetty.
This is the fate of several trawler owners of the district. But the worst affected due to ongoing Nature fury are daily wagers, who go with the trawler for catching fish in order to collect bread and butter for the family members. As the trawler operation to the deep sea has been stopped for a fortnight due to turbulent sea, the poor fisher families are struggling to collect bread and butter. The last torrential rain made thing worse.
According to one Bimal Sarkar, a fishermen, the uninterrupted rains forced the daily wager families to stay indoors. As a result, hardly once did they manage to cook in last two days after rain water gushed into their houses. The stocked food stuffs were damaged.
Similarly, Niranjan Mandal, another fisherman of Kharnashi, said he had not been able to get labour work for a week in last fifteen days as the adverse weather forced him to remain in his house. So for a daily wager, it is hard to survive without work, he lamented.
According to Odisha Traditional Fish Workers' Union(OTFWU) president Narayan Haldar, every year during the month of October, fishing activities get accelerated ahead of a regular ban imposed in view of the Olive Ridley sea turtle nesting season by the forest personnel of Bhitarkanika National Park between November 1 and May 31 next. So this is the month, everybody wants to earn a good amount. But this time due to the calamities, the scenario is something different, he said.
As many as 10 ,000 fishermen are now hit in the cyclonic storm at Mahakalapada block and later due to low pressure in the district.Though the State Government has announced to provide 10 kg of rice to the fishermen each, it will not be sufficient to run their households for a longer period.