Floods Wipe Out Livelihoods of Fishermen Families in Khammam

Khammam: The recent rains put paid to the livelihood of over 16,000 fishermen families in Khammam district and 350 tonnes of fish were washed away due to breaches. According to official reports, 39 irrigation tanks in the district breached while 255 irrigation tanks overflowed. The floods devastated fisheries with around 15 tonnes of fish from cage culture and three cage culture setups in Munneru river were washed away. Each of these setups was valued at Rs 15 lakh. Fish from the Wyra reservoir and the Lanka Sagar project were also swept away.

The impact extended to several mandals including Madira, Errupalem, Vemsuru, Thallada, Enkuru, Konijerla, Kalluru, Palair, Nelakondapally, Mudigonda and Chinthakani, where irrigation tanks had breached. This will disrupt the livelihood of fishermen for more than eight months as it takes about six months for fishlings to mature for market sale.

District fisheries officer K Raja Narsaiah said indigenous thermacol floating boats and fishing nets worth Rs 1 crore were also lost in the floods. A report on the damage has been submitted to the state government and fishlings will be reintroduced into the tanks once they are restored.

Pisciculture impacted at FRC

The fisheries research station at Palair suffered significant damage. The station's 24 ponds which were being used to develop fishlings were submerged resulting in the loss of 20 fish varieties collected over past five years.

They included Jayanthu Raahu from Odisha, genetically improved farmed Tilapia from Vijayawada, red Tilapia from Karnataka, pabda and silver carp from West Bengal. The loss will impact ongoing research efforts to develop new fish breeds.