Orphans of the river

Kagjitola Bhagalpur Bihar. The struggle of 500 families on the banks of the Ganga is to the country's fisherfolk what the Chipko movement was to the forest people of India. In early 1980sit fought a successful battle against landlords and forced the state government to allow traditionalfisherfolk to fish in all the rivers of the state. Now Kagjitola's fishercommunity is on the verge of extinction.

Fun park, fatal foundation

Large-scale fish deaths have sparked a livelihood crisis in the Penny Bay region of Hong Kong. The cause of the fatalities is said to be reclamation work on about 160 hectares of land along the island for a Disney park. Fish farmers have been offered us $641,000 as compensation for the fish deaths, an amount believed to be too meagre as they claim to have suffered losses to the tune of us $102.6 million.

Fishy deaths

on june 13, death deluged the banks of Yamuna river in Agra. The Sikandara-Taj Mahal area along the water body was covered with thousands of dead and dying fish. Less than a week later, reports of more fish deaths poured in from Bateshwar -- within 78 kilometres (km) of the stretch that was affected earlier.

Ban lifted on fishing in Sutlej

in view of the economic hardship faced by the fishing community in Ropar district and the fresh inflow of water, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently passed an interim order lifting the ban on fishing in Sutlej river.

Pesticide in fish

ddt (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) content in fish stocks from Ganga is 16,000 times more than the permissible limit. This was revealed during a study conducted by R K Sinha, a senior investigator of the Ganga pollution-monitoring project. The Patna University, Bihar, is coordinating the project. "I found that the fish contained very high concentrations of the pesticide. This can prove hazardous to human health when consumed for a prolonged period," says Sinha.

Dying fish

tonnes of dead fish have been found near Turkey's Gulf of Izmit, located south of Istanbul. Scientists have no clue as to why the gulf has been filling up with dead fish. Izmit is one of Turkey's main industrial centres.

PERU

A group of asthma patients from Peru have sued the Southern Peru Copper Corporation. The patients allege that the company's activities have led to the large-scale pollution around the city of Ilo. They allege that "deadly pollution" resulting from the company's activities has caused loss of life, health and property. The patients said that the pollution could have been avoided if the company had installed preventive devices.

Toxic fish

high levels of the cancer-causing dioxin have been found in European seafood. A new report of the European Union (eu) says that fish oil and fish meal have maximum level of dioxins and other toxins. The levels of contamination of seafood from the European regions are eight times higher than similar products from non-industrial regions, such as the waters off Peru and Chile.

DYING FISH

A recent massive oil and fertiliser spill off Sri Lanka's southern coast has triggered a grave ecological and humanitarian crisis. "The pollutants have spread over an area of eight square kilometres along the coastline. This has threatened the marine life. Every day fisherfolk remove several tonnes of dead fish from the surface.

KILLING SLICKS

Continuos oil slicks and coastal water pollution off the Chittagong coast of Bangladesh are reported to have killed 160 species of rare fishes and aquatic plants. Research has also indicated that oil spills are affecting the reproductive cycle of certain species. Oil spills from tankers cruising through the Bay of Bengal is very common. Apart from the spills, the tankers also discharge their used oil into the sea water disregarding all regulatory provisions.