The life of fisherfolk and Yanadi tribals, who survive in the backwaters of Krishna district, reminds one of the Hollywood movie Return to the Blue Lagoon . Based on the novel ‘The Garden of God’ by Hendry De Vere Stacpoole, a widow, her daughter and a boy drift to a tropical island where the children grow up, learn life lessons in the movie.
Nestled between moderately dense mangrove forests and confluence point of river Krishna into Bay of Bengal, the Yanadi tribals venture into the backwaters for fishing and survive the deadly nights aided by the forest and the blue waters.
“The forest helps us in many ways. It gives us leaves and wood to build a temporary house on the beach to spend our nights. We collect firewood from it to prepare food,” Tammi Nancharamma told The Hindu . The tribal people spread the leaves collected from the mangrove forest on the beach as they serve them as bed under the roof made of bunch of wood.
Like Ms. Nancharamma and her husband of Eelachetladibba Island in Nagayalanka mandal, a couple who spend most of their life by fishing, many couples in Diviseema could be sighted spending their night in the backwaters.
“We never feel scared to spend our nights alone by the forest, and we enjoy the gentle breeze from the sea”, added Ms. Nancharamma. The fisherfolk and Yanadi tribal people use their traditional boat as their temporary home in which they set up stove and store their clothes and fish caught during their voyage.
Round-the-year affair
Fishing in the backwaters and the sea is a round-the-year affair of the local communities, as the guidelines banning the fishing of marine species will not apply in the case of fishing with engineless boats or traditional boats. The fisherfolk, who built the house on the beach, leave it for the next comers.
Interestingly, many Yanadi tribals who live in the backwaters at the confluence point have been playing a laudable role in conservation of Olive Ridley Turtles.
