THATTA, April 13: The local fishermen have complained about being restricted to creeks in the deltaic area of the River Indus by fishing contractors in connivance with the law enforcement agencies.

Members of the fishermen community, including Imam Bux, Rasoolo and Fida Dhandhal, said on Sunday that they had been compelled, for a considerable period of time, to keep their boats anchored at Kun Jugiyoon, Kamro, Chopati, Veer and other creeks on one pretext or the other.

Fishermen said that their average fish catch, which had been 200 tonnes per vessel in 1992, had dropped to nearly 75 tonnes per vessel in 1998.

A Sindh government official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Dawn that in the light of a 1977 agreement with the law enforcement agencies, the Sindh government had demarcated an area adjoining its border with India, including four deltaic lakes (locally called Dhands) plus 35 to 45 nautical miles in the Pakistani territorial waters in the Arabian Sea for security purposes.

However, he said, within a short span of time and without the consent of the fisheries department, the law enforcement agencies had acquired 17 more deltaic lakes, including Nareri, Sanhero, New Creek and Ghonghro.

Then, he said, the law enforcement agencies began leasing the lakes out to private contractors, violating the Sindh government’s Fisheries Ordinance 1980, amended in 1984.

The Ordinance, he said, had clearly stated that the public water areas were the property of the fisheries department and that the only authority to lease them out was the Sindh government.

The then chief minister of Sindh, Syed Abdullah Shah, had taken up the matter with the concerned law enforcement agency in 1995 seeking 50 per cent share of income, generated through the award of fishing contracts, for the Sindh government, the official said.

The matter, he added, was still pending and recently, the Sindh chief secretary was reported to have made a similar move.

According to the official, the fishing area had been leased out to a private contractor, Ashiq Ali, for Rs31 million in 2002, who had deposited Rs18 million.

The contractor, the official said, had later reportedly gone into litigation to “ascertain the legitimacy of the ownership of the fishing area.”

He said that there were about 70 to 75 settlements of fishermen scattered in the area.

He, however, expressed ignorance about the local fishermen not being allowed to fish in the area or about their being allegedly victimized by the law enforcement agencies.

A Badin-based law enforcement agency official, also on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that allegations against the law enforcement agency regarding fishing contracts were untrue as the lakes had dried up during the past couple of years. He also denied that the law enforcement agency had committed excesses against the local fishermen.

According to official figures, sea intrusion had inundated an area of 1.2 million acres in 159 Dehs in eight talukas of the 130-kilometre-long deltaic region in Thatta and Badin districts.

Apart from devastating the area economically, the sea intrusion had also caused vanishing of the deltaic mangroves, which have shrunk from 240,000 hectares to barely 20,000 hectares.

Sea water intrusion has also destroyed riverine forests spread over an area of 120,145 acres in the two districts, vastly changing their composition by replacing the freshwater-dependent Babool, Kandi and Lat species with other saltwater-tolerant species.

Experts believe that at least 10 million acre-feet of water was required downstream Kotri to revitalize the ecology of the Indus Delta.

According to statistics gathered by this correspondent, at least 30,000 people from Kharochhan, Debelo, Sokhi, Padwari, Kun, Sultanpur and other deltaic regions, whose livelihood depended on fishing, had already migrated towards urban areas because of adverse economic factors, including dwindling marine resources, destruction of agrarian economy because of sea intrusion in the wake of inadequate supply of irrigation water downstream Kotri.

Our Badin correspondent adds: The Nareri Dhandh (deltaic lake) in Badin district, once the main source of livelihood for hundreds of fishermen living in the coastal area, had dried up following inadequate supply of river water.

The lake, located 50 kilometres southwest from here at the Zero-Point of the Arabian Sea, once stretched eight to nine kilometres over an area of 10,200 acres in the Shaheed Fazil Rahu and Badin talukas.

This was one of the 12 deltaic lakes, which was leased out for Rs24 million to Amjad Ali Qazi, a private fishing contractor, this year.

Two of the main drains, including the Guni-Phuleli Outfall Drain, fall into sea through the Nareri lake, because of which its saline content has risen so much that for five kilometres not even fish could survive.

People, belonging to the Mehar Dhandhal village and Moeman Thamoor village, said that the private contractor, Qazi Amjad, had been awarded fishing contracts of the 12 deltaic lakes, including the Nareri Dhandh, and he was financing fisherman for fishing nets.