Close on the heels of Siruthuli, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore, Sri Vijayalakshmi Charitable Trust and members of the public and various other organisations removing silt from the Big Tank in Ukkadam, the fishermen have also done their bit.
According to fisherman N. Rajkumar, fishermen with rights to fish at the Tank decided to remove water hyacinth, spread over two to three acre, after holding a community meeting a week ago.
As per the decision, 50 fishermen, aged between 20 and 60, went into the water spread area and removed the plant with their hands.
They did so till 1 p.m. and would continue till they removed all the plants.
He said that in addition to cleaning the Tank, the other objective was to prevent the spread of the plant, which would happen during the North East Monsoon.
Having suffered the plant in the past, the fishermen wanted to remove the weed at the earliest and took the plunge. The plant also affected their fishing in that the fishes’ growth gets curtailed. Mr. Rajkumar said that the fishermen had requested those who removed silt from the Tank to spare an earth mover or any other heavy machinery to remove the weeds from the Tank bund, where they had dumped them.
