While traditional fishermen of coastal Karnataka who used to do fishing in rivers appear to have moved either to more ‘lucrative’ sand mining or deep sea fishing, the void has been filled by nomadic fishermen at many places.
Soon after the monsoon sets in, when the rivers revert to their original form, many nomadic fishermen descend on the rivers in coastal Karnataka and engage in catching either fresh water or saline water fish from these rivers.
On Monday morning, Krishnappa from Sakharayapatna village in Chikkamagaluru taluk was seen busy emptying his coracle even as his son Suresh was carefully pulling out the net to grab whatever was there in the Gurupura. When the coracle reached near the banks of the river at Malavur, this correspondent drew the duo to a conversation.
About 40 men from Sakharayapatna have come to Mangaluru and surrounding places with their coracles. Asked why they came to Mangaluru when their region had plenty of freshwater tanks, Mr. Krishnappa said most of them had dried up and those depending on tanks had no choice but to look for greener pastures.
They stay at makeshift shelters along the river bank and enter into the water early in the morning to spread the fishing net. Earlier, these nomadic fishermen used to face the ire from local fishermen; but these days there is no such opposition as they must have moved to sand extraction, Mr. Krishnappa said.
While spreading the nets, they have to be careful so as to avoid sand mining boats, he said.
They would sell the catch at nearby markets and get good price since the catch is fresh. Along with fish, they sometimes get crabs and other marine creatures too.
As his son, aged about 13, paddled the coracle away from the river bank; a broad smile on his face was the only answer for the question why he was not going to school.
