After distress sale of washed-away fish from fisheries (bheris) in the aftermath of cylcone Yaas, prices have started soaring as supplies dipped in the market. While fish consignments from Andhra Pradesh are yet to be restored to pre-Yaas level, ingress of saline water in sweet water ponds in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, which killed a large number of fish, dried up local supplies. Traders said the demand-supply gap was likely to widen in coming days. Markets in the city saw a dearth of fish on Monday, with demand far exceeding the supply. The prices suddenly jumped by Rs 100-150 per kg across varieties. “It is mainly because of the shortage. The supply line from Andhra Pradesh is facing problems. The series of diesel price rises also hit transportation and escalated prices,” said Amar Das, a fish vendor at Lake Market. Buyers had to shell out double the money for the Bengali household staple. “I had difficulty finding small variety fish. Finally, I paid double the price for what I got after much effort,” said Gourango Sarkar, a retired central government employee at Parnashree.
Preeti Ghosh also faced similar problem at Sinthee Market, where she complained, “fresh fish had vanished”. Explaining the “disappearing fresh fish”, Bijon Maity, secretary of Fishermen’s Association, Kakdwip, said, “So far, the fish from ponds and tanks catered to 70% of the demand, while 30% was met by sea fish. But after saline water flowed into ponds during the cyclone and the day after, lakhs of fish died, changing the scene. Now, there is a serious scarcity and the demand-supply gap will widen further.” “ It is going to take months to drain saline water out of ponds and let rain water fill the places up. Only then, can fish be cultivated there. The crisis will persist till then,” said Raghu Gayen, whose fishery in Phalta has been washed away. Nine of 18 ponds belonging to Tarasundor Haldar, a fish cultivator at Namkhana, have been washed away. “I have lost a few lakhs of fresh fish. Even during Amphan, I had managed to safeguard all my ponds. At least 100 families are dependent on this fishery,” he said.
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