Fishing in the Narmada estuary has been the backbone of the coastal district of Bharuch in Gujarat. With Hilsa, prawns, Mahaseer and more than 80 other varieties of fish, the yield used to be as high as 10,000-15,000 tonnes a year, with the annual revenue of Rs 500 crore. The first blow came with the building of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, whicht cut down the annual yield drastically to about 4,000 tonnes and even less. The area is now home to very few varieties of fish and that too in steadily dwindling quantity. The small scale fishing communities have been protesting the devastation of fisheries perpetrated by the construction of Sardar Sarovar and other dams on River Narmada.