As many as 2,800 fishermen, who had been earning their livelihood by fishing in the Pong wetland, got respite after the ban on fishing was lifted today. The ban had been imposed by the Kangra district administration on January 3 after the avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak in the Pong wetland wildlife sanctuary. After rendering jobless, the fishermen, who were engaged in catching fish through 16 fisheries cooperative societies, have demanded a compensation because of the restricted fishing activity in the wetland. On the first day of the ban lifting, most of the fishermen were hesitant to resume normal fishing activity in the Pong wetland and preferred to wait and watch for a few days.
The district administration, in its order under the Disaster Management Act-2005, had restricted the movement of human and domestic livestock around one-km periphery of the Pong wetland, declaring it an alert zone. The administration had also prohibited sale or purchase of poultry products, fish and meat within the area under jurisdiction of Dehra, Jawali, Fatehpur and Indora subdivision in Kangra district. DC Kangra Rakesh Prajapati, who revoked fishing ban order last evening, told The Tribune that after receiving a communiqué from the Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry, intimating that there was no mortality in poultry for the past five days, the restriction imposed on fishing activity in the Pong wetland had been withdrawn. The district administration had lifted the ban on the sale of poultry products, fish and meat in all four Indora, Fatehpur, Jawali and Dehra subdivisions on January 28 but kept the same to be enforced within the 10-km radius of the avian influenza-infested zone near the Pong wetland in Fatehpur subdivision. Praveen Kumar, Kewal Kumar and Ashok, presidents of Khatiyar, Sthana and Sihal fisheries cooperative societies, while welcoming the decision, have appealed to the government to consider the demand of the fishermen of granting compensation to the fishermen as they had no means of livelihood during the ban period of over one month.
The Tribune Trust, 2021