A steady increase in the extent of fish tanks in East Godavari district over the years has prompted the officials to establish aquaculture zones and to put a ban on conversion of agriculture lands into aqua tanks. Skyrocketing input costs coupled with absence of remunerative price for paddy has been forcing more and more farmers to undertake aquaculture by converting their lush green paddy fields into fish tanks. According to the official records, fish tanks spread in an extent of 4,939 hectares in 2007-08, which rose to 5,720 hectares by 2009-10.
At present, aquaculture is going on in 12,296 hectares in different parts of the district and nevertheless to say that the agriculture farmers are turning into aqua farmers by converting their farm lands into fish tanks. This means, there has been a steady drop in the extent of cultivable land and farm produce on one hand and increase in the groundwater salinity on the other in the areas where the aquaculture is rampant. “There is an immediate need to curtail the conversion of fertile land for aquaculture and for this we have chalked out a detailed plan involving the officials of the Fisheries and the Revenue Departments and that of the pollution control board,” says District Collector H. Arun Kumar.
It has been a year since the State Satellite Applications Centre releasing maps identifying areas where the aquaculture is extensive. With the help of the survey, the staff of the Revenue and the Fisheries Departments conducted a joint survey to find out that 8,563.64 hectares in Amalapuram revenue division, 3,113.67 hectares in Kakinada division and 619.5 hectares of land in Rajamahendravaram division have been allocated for aquaculture. Interestingly, the government accorded permissions for an extent of 10,000 hectares only. “The idea is to declare that areas where huge extent of lands are converting into fish ponds as aqua zones before putting a complete ban on further conversions,” explains the Collector.
Deputy Director of the Fisheries department S. Anjali admits that there are unauthorised fish tanks spread in different parts of the district. “Some farmers are unaware of the mandatory rule of obtaining permission from the government before converting the agriculture land into aqua ponds. They are under the impression that they owned the land so that they could use it as per their wish,” she points out. A fresh survey is undertaken jointly by both the Fisheries and the Revenue Departments to finalise the extent of fish ponds, which is expected to be completed by November 15. The draft plan with details of the proposed aqua zones will be uploaded to the district website for public opinion. After making necessary changes to the initial plan basing on the feedback, the final draft will be sent to the government for its approval.
“The aquaculture regions will be divided into three different schedules basing on the soil quality and the extent of the ponds. As the process has begun, no new permissions will be given for the land conversions,” says Dr. Anjali.
