Climate Change endangering existence of small boat fishermen communities

KOCHI, Kerala: A 2021 study published in the Journal Climate Dynamics revealed that the frequency of cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea has increased by a massive 52 per cent between 2001 and 2019 period, while at the same time duration of these cyclonic storms witnessed 80 per cent rise. The frequency of severe cyclonic storms has almost tripled between 1982 and 2000.

Due to these changing weather and climate patterns, communities living in the coastal areas of Kerala, dependent on fishing for their survival, are encountering an existential crisis. These communities use small boats for fishing in the ocean, and once their boat gets damaged they are left with no other backup option as they are too poor to buy a new one.

PTI reports that in 2019, a 56 year old fisherman that goes by the name V S Podiyal entered the ocean to fish, but his boat couldn’t withstand the might of the rough sea, which now sits in the graveyard of boats, with weeds peeping through its small holes. His boat, called Rosemary, is not alone in this graveyard. It is being accompanied by thousands of other such boats.

He recalls, “When high waves started hitting, my boat flipped. There were 18 of us and we were rescued after four hours, but my boat was damaged beyond repair.” He added, “There is no way to repair it and no scheme from the government to help us. If the equipment is lost, the government has no compensation scheme. Several fishermen are facing this problem.”

Father John Kalathi, Vicar of St George Church in south Chellanam, said there are around 600 families in his parish and 99 per cent of them earn their living through fishing. He added, “The situation is terrible for them because of climate change, weather, change in sea and water. The fish catch is reducing but the expense is very high for them to carry on fishing.”

Loan sharks add to the misery of these small fishermen as most of the fishermen who lost their boats in the ocean take high-interest loans from the loan sharks to meet their financial requirements. Podiyal is one such fisherman who took a loan of ₹25,000 at an interest rate of 10 per cent per month. He said, now that amount has risen to ₹40,000, and I have no means to pay the loan back. I fear that the loan sharks would start threatening me soon.”

In 2018, the government built a separate cyclonic station to give prior warning to these fishermen, thereby warning them of the rough conditions of the sea with an aim to reduce the damage. Apart from Kerala, India Meteorological Department (IMD) centre also provide extreme weather warning to Karnataka and Lakshadweep in the Indian Ocean. There are now seven weather warning centres across India.

However, these weather warnings are not that beneficial for these small fisherman communities because extreme weather events are not the only thing that damages their boats. Due to their small frames, these boats are also vulnerable to unpredictable rough seas, thunderstorms and lightning. Keeping that in mind, the IMD department is looking to expand its early warning capabilities to cover small-scale weather events to help fishermen like Podiyal.